A few weeks ago, I went to Scotland with one of my best friends and of course Rosy the dog. We went to the beautiful island of Iona for a week staying with the amazingly hospitable Iona Community. It was a long, quite challenging journey to get there involving a very comfortable electric car, finding the right speed chargers in the right places, navigating through beautiful Scottish countryside, getting delayed by broken chargers and slow chargers and not working chargers, spending an unexpected night in a hotel in Oban but having a fantastic curry for dinner and then getting the first ferry over to Mull the next morning, driving across Mull and finally arriving at Iona Abbey in time for lunch on Sunday. We arrived exhausted but remarkably happy and spent an insightful, eye-opening and wonderful week. While we were on Iona, I made the decision to start blogging again, once home and in possession of my laptop once again.
So, here I am, starting a new blog and it's called Sacred Goose.
Do I need to unpack that title for you? Ok then.
The whole trip to Iona felt incredibly sacred to me, I hadn't been away without Matt for more than four years, so being able to travel with my lovely friend and Rosy dog was amazing. The car was sacred ground, full of conversations that were deep, personal and not always comfortable but nonetheless safe, there was silliness and humour as well as comfortable silence and the moment when she said, "look over there, you might see a... Oh look a stag!!"and sure enough there staring right at us from the woodland was a stag, antlers and all. When we realised we would not make the ferry to Iona in time, we stopped to make a plan, tea, chocolate fudge cake and hugs from Rosy helped us both to calm our anxiety and decide what to do. Soon we arrived in Oban, hotel checked into and curry enjoyed, we knew that when we arrived, Iona would be waiting. There was a sacredness, a holiness about the whole thing, a sense of provision that went beyond making do and ventured into the arena of pilgrimage.
And geese... well geese are fascinating birds. They fly for hundreds of miles together as a flock, taking turns to lead and navigate, taking care of one another as they travel, weathering storms and cloud cover and getting to where they want to be together. The wild goose is also the symbol or logo used by the Iona Community, which we three (yes, Rosy too) are now members of. I am a sacred goose and this is my blog.
Add comment
Comments