I am come home.

Iona at last. What a day. It was quite an endeavor to get there and we just returned. Took the ferry from OBan to Mull. caught a bus for a long trip on the one atrack road across Mull to Fionnpuirt and from there caught another ferry to Iona. As soon as I put my feet on Mull, I got this amazing jolt of a sensation like I KNOW this place and its smells, plants, food, people, homes, water, animals--it was home. I also had more than a few "flashbacks" or whoosh-scenes- of running around those glens as a boy-man with someone we all know- Scott McLean...and guess what, this is the territory of none other than the MACLEANS. More later on that-maybe--I'm not drunk, crazy, or inbetween realities. But I know what I know.
Iona,as soon as I saw that Holy Isle- there I was HOME AGAIN. IN a different way and from a different time. Got off that ferry and headed to thebeach to get barefoot and build a labyrinth -which I did. After that it was time tohead to the 12th century nunnery with the rocks that vibrate..interesting that I was able to identify all the rooms even before I checked out a guide or looked at any signage. The ancient abbey was unbelievable. I took a tour and then attended a prayer service in the ancient abbey for peace and justice facilitated by the Iona community who live and work there now. The stone crosses (7th centry a.d.) from the St. MAtthew and St. Martin crosses vibrated with life and story. I have some writing to do. The walls were thick and restored. This was a place of much sacred work (The Book of Kells to name one)and much violence--those Norsemen, Dalriadic warrior types, those Irish types, and those Vikings again. I lit a candle for our prayers and for peace in the old chapel. I left cedar from Fair Isle in the labyrinth, at the abbey, and in one of the old stone walls. I walked all over that place with a sense of connetion, completion, remembrance, and hope. The loads of dogs and kids around didn't hurt any either. The trip on the ferries and the bus across Mull was long but gave me time to think. Last night was the first night I have had trouble with sleepwalking and I awoke last night in a panic because I was in a stone cell, at first I had thought it was an oubliette- a nasty thing they have here in Scottish castles from that basically is a cell with a trap door where the prisoner was putand forgotten about...it wasn't that. As I was in a lucid sleep state-seeing, touching, feeling the stone walls, I realized it was like a nun's cell....I couldn't get out, literally, so I laid back down to rest with a pounding heart. I found the spot today and the room today. It was actually the watcher's cell looking out from the abbey for anything threatening from the south island side. IT was a WHAM! kind of knowing. Thank goodness, none of this surprises me anymore because I have seen this place and the people who were here before so many times. I love and know them this time around. I also know how we died then. It wasn't pretty either time. If this makes anyone uncomfortable, then skip this item on the blog. It is real for me. and for those who know about this. Coming to Iona this life, this time, in this way, praying there, breathing there, and being escorted by dolphins dancing alongside the ferry back to Mull---it was perfect. I also had another Dream last night about catching a child from a high spot she had climbed. As soon as she hit the catching arms, she turned into a white swan......it was my brother, Mark, who caught her for me. Hmmmm....I can now check off Iona. I am so ready for what is next in my life. I wonder what White Swan is in Vietnamese?
I love this part of Scotland. And I am now ready to come home. We are off to Glasgow tomorrow and Bannockburn-the battlefield of Robert the Bruce or Wallace -I forget. Then to Edinburgh and a bit of detective work for Dad--I have a name now-John Andrew Banks. I doubt I can do much in a day and a half but we shall see. I think he should make the trip with our mother. There are an awful lot of Scottish women who look like her...but she makes the best egg salad. Love to all and see you soon, Erin in this lifetime