A few weeks ago, I had a chance to visit briefly with Vivienne Hull, an Irish woman, who living in Washington State with her American husband, has spent her life studying, teaching, guiding, experiencing Celtic spirituality. They have spent the last forty years taking groups to Iona to absorb the ancient presence from the land. She spoke to me with engaging earnestness as she desired to impart essentials for our stay. We gazed over a map of Iona and she tapped sacred places as she smiled with a faraway look in her eyes. She knows the enterprising family who owns and operates our accommodations on Iona and spoke fondly of so many historical and beautiful places.
On the practical side, she said the weather could be anything from hot to sideways chilling rain. Bring full rain gear she advised and great walking shoes. This brings me to the point where I want to encourage you to work on your walking endurance now. She told me that to see the beaches on the north and south end of the island; you will need to scramble over terrain for a good two to three hours.
Now, if your body does not now nor will ever allow that kind of exercise, the Abby, the Iona Community, and other sweet spots will be plenty accessible. I will encourage each individual to use their best wisdom to structure the days on Iona in personally suitable and necessary ways. Remember this will be the time of retreat and renewal after our scooting around Scotland in a van with our Scottish driver from Edinburgh to Inverness to Skye and Oban beginning September 18. For more information check out the itinerary on an earlier post or call me, Sue at (360) 471-9740.
If new walking/hiking shoes are on your to-do list, be sure to give yourself enough time to break them in. Once my updated passport arrived in the mail, I decided to shop for walking shoes. I bought a pair of red shoes that the manufacturer named “Red Dalia”. I get such a kick out of commercial names for paint, nail polish colors, and shoes. My last pair of red shoes was called Paprika. I confess that I’ve been waiting for the perfect opportunity to take my Red Dalia on their inaugural walk. I smile at them waiting in the shoe shelf. They represent the passion and privilege surrounding this opportunity to travel with you to Scotland and set step after sacred step on Iona.
Before I left Vivienne’s house, she gave me a green speckled rock that fits perfectly in my palm. She told me it is green Iona marble known to be one of the oldest rocks (8 billion years old?!?) on the planet. I’ve been holding it often and each time I do, I feel the perspective that life is but a quick moment in the grand scheme of things and our eternal nature knows now and will know more than we can begin to imagine. I think this is the kind of thinking that happens in Thin Spots, those places were earth and heaven feel near the other. Vivienne also pressed into my hands her book, Iona, A Guide to the Sacred Isle and her husband’s book, The Iona Report, Story of an Enduring Vision. She scowled when I asked if I could pay her saying in clipped words, “No. You may not.”
I think often of the dear travelers who have already signed up and those who still have time to sign up. We have room for two more until the payment dead line in August.
I’ll leave you with the following advice Fritz includes in his book, “What Iona does, and we know this for sure, is to offer itself to a person’s imagination. That’s it. Our best advice is simply to arrive on the island, ready and open. The rest follows “(33). I feel gratitude for the opportunity to be in community with these pilgrims on journey.
May the eternal green and the passion of red enrich your days and clear your vision to what is lasting and good.
My Best to You,
Sue
(360) 471-9740
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