Mossey in the Valley

CToday, Julia Ann Stark did an incredible meditation and activity while we sat on the beach. She talked about liminal time and liminal space- "in between time." While the pilgrims were sitting there writing in their journals I had a moment (one of many today). Here we were on a pilgrimage - a "liminal" experience, sitting on a beach- a liminal place- doing watercolor drawings and writing- a liminal activity. Maybe the theme for today was liminality?

    

(Is that even a word?)

Later, we hiked through a valley whose Irish name I cannot even begin to spell, but is called "Valley of the Lake." We sat atop a peat bank with our guide for the day, a lovely gentleman known only to us as Mossey, and he told us about cutting peat with his Daddy when he was little. Communities would come together every year about his time and would help each other to cut peat for their fuel. 3 men would go with the owner of the peat bank and help him cut peat- then he would go with those three to help them. These communities shared labor and possessions and food and water with one another in this beautiful,  but often harsh place. 

As we walked out of the valley later today, Mossey looked at me and said, "This place has seen and absorbed everything: creation, destruction, death, life, heartbreak, joy, beauty and terror. And still, it is what God made it."

               Mossey- our guide, bard, and spiritual director for the day.

Mossey sang a song for us  from  the great migration- a song whose central character was a young boy leaving this green valley we were in to go to America, where he would never see his family again. We stared over the valley as Mossey sang these old words in an even older tongue.

A perfect moment. A world soaked in God's creative genius and love and majesty today.

So grateful to God and to you all for this day. None of us will forget the beauty we have experienced here in this blessed land.

       These pilgrims have hiked to some remote places this week with joy in their hearts. They look tired here because we took this at the end if our hike today. It was a hard one but full of many rewarding moments.

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