Wondering...

Returning home, I find myself walking between multiple worlds. The ancestral mind and time for intentionality and presence were abundant on my recent trip. Back in Seattle, on a 'thin day' where the space between heaven and earth almost disappears, I experience a sense of floating and being grounded all at the same time. My own words fail me and so I turn to words of another and images of my own.

Today, I continue a journey that started who knows when as I head to Hood Canal with my wonderful sister to a retreat called "Honoring the Ancestors." My heart is already overflowing and I wonder if it can hold anymore. Wondering leads my way both past and present...

I move among the ankles
of forest Elders, tread
their moist rugs of moss,
duff of their soft brown carpets.
Far above, their arms are held
open wide to each other, or waving--

what they know, what
perplexities and wisdoms they exchange,
unknown to me as were the thoughts
of grownups when in infancy I wandered
into a roofed clearing amidst
human feet and legs and the massive
carved legs of the table,

the minds of people, the minds of trees
equally remote, my attention then
filled with sensations, my attention now
caught by leaf and bark at eye level
and by thoughts of my own, but sometimes
drawn to upgazing -- up and up: to wonder
about what rises
so far above me into the light.

--- Denise Levertov

irish trees © lucy

Just a few things I Learned in Ireland...

Ireland has more colors of green than any box of crayons.

Hospitality and Ireland could share one definition in a dictionary.

The ancestors are alive and well.

The ground holds the presence of times gone past. If you listen closely, the wind will whisper secrets into your ears. If your heart is open, no words are necessary.

St. Brigid's fire burns as bright today as in her own lifetime.

The womb of the earth is safe and whole and dark and lovely.

The future guides us into the present. The past greets us and the three become the Holy now.

Holy cow - is there any doubt?

People are generous at heart.

Guinness is most satisfying by the 1/2 pint.

A sip of Irish cream makes a fine dessert.

There is NO potato famine in Ireland today.

Stone bridges do not yield. They are made for crossing and honking your horn doesn't mean someone will hear it.

There are portals between worlds: gates - pathways - doors come in all shapes and sizes. Stone, air, wood, water. And in all colors - forest green, stone gray, sea blue, red of fire, yellow, green, orange, blue, white and black.

The killeen are alive and well in the soil of St. Mary's Church.

There is a great orchestrator in the cosmos. Just listen and you will hear the next step.

"May the stars light your way and may you find the interior road forward." - traditional Irish farewell

photos © lucy
Glendolough
St. Brigid @ her well
Holy Cow - Dowdstown
St. Saviour Church window

Celtic Spirituality and the Wisdom of the Ancestors

"Pilgrims are poets who create by taking journeys." -- Richard R. Niebuhr

7:30 Morning Prayer and Breakfast

Newgrange, Hill of Tara

Midday Meal and Afternoon free to rest, contemplate, and explore

17:00 Noble Silence

18:00 Evening Meal followed by Evening Prayer and Pilgrimage
Closure Celebration

20:00 Celtic Music Celebration with Claire Roche - Harpist

Overnight: Dowdstown House Retreat Center, near the Hill of Tara

St. Brigid of Kildare - Mary of the Gael

"Have you ever imagined yourself in a place that stirred your soul like the song of doves at dawn? Uncover what you long for and you will discover who you are." -- Phil Cousineau

7:30 Morning Prayer and Breakfast

9:00 Depart for Kildare, St. Brigid’s Well, St. Brigid’s Cathedral

Midday Meal and Afternoon free to rest, contemplate, and explore

19:00 Evening Meal, Noble Silence and Evening Prayer

Overnight: Dowdstown House Retreat Center, near the Hill of Tara

Back to Dublin - National Treasures

"A great traveler...is a kind of introspective; as she covers the ground outwardly, so she advances fresh interpretations of herself inwardly." -- Phil Cousineau

I wonder if Dublin will look different than it did a few days ago?

7:30 Morning Prayer and Breakfast

9:00 Depart for Dublin

10:00 Celtic treasures at the National Museum and the Book of Kells at
Trinity College

Midday Meal and Free Afternoon to explore Dublin

19:00 Evening Meal

21:00 Noble Silence and Evening Prayer

Overnight: Glendalough Hotel, County Wicklow