“Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.” Thus wrote Kahlil Gibran in his classic work of spiritual poetry The Prophet.

As a Unitarian (and a sometime scientist) reason (along with freedom and tolerance) in matters religious and beyond, is of great value to me. Nevertheless, Gibran goes on to write: “For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.” Both reason and passion, in dynamic balance, are required for a healthy life.

The movement towards this balance, this integration, of reason and passion, has underpinned much of my own life journey so far. And I expect it to continue to do so. It feels like a good title for my blog and I hope the content is worthy of it!

Ralph Helverson wrote: “A ship is safe in harbour but that is not what a ship is for”. This blog – broadly my reflections on life and living – represents the writings of someone who finally feels that they have slipped their moorings and is making their way towards the open sea. Whether I will find my fortune there or not I do not know, but I can no longer ignore its call.

More prosaically, while I am at the outset of training for Ministry within the Unitarian tradition, I do not intend this blog to be purely for my co-religionists and indeed hope that those of all faiths and philosophies (and none) can find something, in amongst what will be sometimes be quite personal material, that is inspirational, challenging or at least useful!

Journey well.

Andy Phillips
Belper, UK
July 2015