Back on Iona

I am back on the Isle of Iona. For those of you who have not followed my blog for very long I will explain a bit more about this place in a few days. But in a nutshell, Iona is a small island off the West Coast of Scotland believed to be the cradle of Christianity for Scotland and perhaps Northern Europe. It is remote, you must take two ferry’s and a bus to arrive, and that is after you arrive in the UK and travel to the city of Oban. It is widely held to a be a “thin place.” And I love it, for its being Scottish, its being remote and its thin-ness.
And I cannot discount its beauty. There are a variety of beaches, some dazzling white, others brown and still others rocky with pebbles and stones. The water is turquoise blue, like that you see in travel brochures for the Bahamas or Cayman Islands. The entire place is a lush deep green, and the landscape is dotted with rocks and cows and sheep.
Even with its remoteness you cannot discount the scores of people that will come. You can sit on a hill and watch waves of them descend on the island as they disembark from the ferry, but as the afternoon fades to evening and the last of them load on the ferry there is a quietness that veils the island. Those on the island are few in number and you know that anyone you meet is on the island for the night.
So it is here my backpack has been unloaded and I shall work and observe from here. Meeting and finding all sorts of thin places.