Iona of my heart

At dinner last night, KJ - an extremely tall, young man from Sweden who is working as a volunteer in the Iona community's craft room - asked what I will take with me from my time at Iona.  I have a feeling the answer will continue to unfold in coming weeks and months.

For the moment, I responded by saying that I will take myself back with me - a self that is rejuvenated and in touch with my aliveness and creative center.  It is good to be reacquainted with that place inside.

The week of learning from Irish poet and Bible scholar Padraig O Tuama and the Iona community has been challenging and refreshing for my soul. 

In our sessions, we used Ignatian meditation practices as approaches to enter Bible stories from the Gospels. At the close of the sessions, Padraig suggested prompts and questions about our lives as a means of prayer and connection to the Bible. For example, after reading and reflecting on Jesus' encounter with the Syro-Phoenician woman who interrupts him when he is tired and seeking rest, he asked us to consider how we respond to interruptions. How are we changed by the unexpected as Jesus may have been changed by this encounter? What is Jesus saying to us through our experience of the unexpected?  And, in the story of the feeding of the 5,000, he asked us to imagine where we enter that story? Are we doubting that Jesus can provide for the needs of our community(ies)? Are we willing to offer our meager fish and bread for the blessing of others? Are we the ones picking up the scraps after the picnic? Where do we enter in and what does Jesus say to us there?

The imaginative exercises were a delight, but the questions were no small challenge. Particularly when he asked us to consider how we might weave in the painful parts of our lives, those bits of which we might be ashamed, and recognize how those parts got us to "here."

I've only begun the weaving, but for now I am very grateful, as I have said before, for all that got me here.

Dolphins greeted our group on the way back from visiting Fingal's Cave on the isle of Staffa. Glorious!

So long, Iona. Thank you for the double rainbows and double blessings, for the surprises and challenges and many new friends. 

And now, on to the next! 

What's next by the way involves adventures in England with my friend and college roommate Monica before finishing my Europe education with a pilgrimage of Reformation sites in eastern Germany.