Dear Sam

Thank you for our chat this morning. Friday mornings, apart from the actual day is turning into a great time to exchange news and views and writing thoughts.

What I did enjoy today was the book discussion. Amy Tan's memoirs will be an interesting read once I get to download it properly and of course Rilke's letters to a Young Poet is a sensitive and thought-provoking read.

But what I find interesting is how our chats meander from subject to subject as we walk through books, ancestors and then land on Iona where I accidentally tumbled into Macbeth's grave which lies with many other Scottish kings near the Abbey. The Duke of Argyll is responsible for the upkeep of the abbey and its magnificent cycle of weekly prayers keep the island safe in a subliminal way. The Celtic tradition is simple and pure with no final blessing at the end of a service. 

As in any retreat journey you have to want to get there. You travel to Glasgow, Oban and this tiny island is off Mull. Iona is one of the oldest Christian communities in Western Europe (563CE) and was founded by St Columba who travelled in a coracle from Ireland.  When David was in Elgin, I visited him for a couple of weeks and we bopped around Scotland in the tiniest of cars with D navigating and me driving. We visited standing stones and while we did enter the circle and the stones do 'sing' I did not disappear into another century filled with fighting redcoats and wild highland warriors thank goodness. We visited Fingal's cave on Staffa island on a small fishing boat with Mendelssohn's music blaring tinnily from a tannoy as waves crashed around us. 

We also visited the esoteric Findhorn where we meditated in a round hall and then went onto an Evensong service at a Benedictine monastery where the brothers chanted behind a wooden screen as we listened. It all seems very surreal now with David's stand on religion. 

My goodness our discussion this morning has taken me back a while. 

Take care and have a good weekend.