The official tour is over and at noon I’ll be on my way to Dublin with a few of the women before flying home on Tuesday. This pilgrimage of thirty-six women has offered quite contrast to all that silence, solitude and simplicity I experienced at the cottage for nearly five months. Was the trip worth it? Of course. Besides visiting some awesome sacred sites, I made several simpatico friends and solidified some ways of being for myself.
For one thing, I had ample practice slipping into my own space of the 3Ss. Yesterday, for example, we spent a two hours at Lough Gur and Le Grange Stone Circles, one of the largest stone circles in Ireland, and were accompanied by Noirin Ni Rain, one of Ireland's renowned singers. The space was filled with silence, quiet talk, song and the mooing of cows who wandered amongst us--Holy sounds. It was a precious time of being "alone in the presence of."
But then, back on the bus, real world chatter began again, all rather jarring to me. I would have liked to have listened to Noirin sing-- or we could have sung or been led to silence. But the leadership wasn’t there. Instead each of us had to create our own way of being. For me it was to go into my own silent space. Having had my cottage time prepared me well.
For one thing, I had ample practice slipping into my own space of the 3Ss. Yesterday, for example, we spent a two hours at Lough Gur and Le Grange Stone Circles, one of the largest stone circles in Ireland, and were accompanied by Noirin Ni Rain, one of Ireland's renowned singers. The space was filled with silence, quiet talk, song and the mooing of cows who wandered amongst us--Holy sounds. It was a precious time of being "alone in the presence of."
But then, back on the bus, real world chatter began again, all rather jarring to me. I would have liked to have listened to Noirin sing-- or we could have sung or been led to silence. But the leadership wasn’t there. Instead each of us had to create our own way of being. For me it was to go into my own silent space. Having had my cottage time prepared me well.