A collection of thoughts and words

A collection of thoughts, theories, reviews, letters, poems and diary notes by John Myhill – September 2018.

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John Myhill Collection Sept18

Essays on Mental Distress

A collection of short  essays on Mental Distress, Religion and Literature by John Myhill.

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John Myhill Essays on Mental Distress

The Forest without Birds by John Myhill

The title is not intended to express sadness, at the lack of ecological diversity in forests, but an earnest hope that we may all learn to fly.

The forest symbolises our experience of life, as birds unable to fly, because the trees are so crowed together.  The forest is too dark for birds.  They/we “cannot see the wood for the trees”.   Each tree is a moment in our lives: each hugely powerful, capable of dominating all our experience.

Getting lost in forest is a common experience reflected in great tales like Lord of the Rings and Wind in the Willows.  But at what moment did we become lost?  Were we lost from the moment we entered the forest?

My essential assumption is that time is not sequential, or we would all realise the same great truths at the same age.  But what is obvious from experience, to Collette at five is only understood by Iris at eighty-five, and vice versa.  Time is going round in circles, until we recognise certain trees as distinct moments.  Suddenly we recognise an individual tree/a specific moment, although we have seen it many times before without awareness of its significance.  Soon we know the significance of the trees/moments around the first tree.  It is then we find a route through the forest, so that we can learn to fly.

Timelessness is the purpose of life.  It occurs when a bird flies above the forest and sees all the moments in balance.  People have called this eternity or eternal life.

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The Forest Without Birds

Trials and Inspirations – my autobiography

Norfolk magistrate and Quaker John Myhill retired from the Bench after ten years service in the Norwich courts, but it was when he was in the dock himself in front of a Crown Court judge that proved a major turning point in his life.

After years of prison support work, John found himself incarcerated in Norwich Prison, for a crime he did not commit.

But when the cell door slammed shut a surprising thing happened. It was not the loss of freedom but the discovery of its true meaning

John story’s following his birth in a tropical thunderstorm in Hong Kong includes encounters with poet Walter de la Mare, authors AA Milne, TS Eliot and former Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

But it was the hundreds of others, less well known but showing signs of genius, that inspired him to write his story.

A career spanning academic research, nursing, farming, social work, community development followed until, at the age of 65, John felt called to lay all these things down and be open to the moving of the Spirit of God.

“I am returning to the awe of childhood, to the dreamer that I was.”

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Trials and Inspirations

You can contact John at john.myhill1948@btinternet.com