Arriving

Truth is when I arrived on Saturday, I was exhausted and elated, but arrival really only occurred yesterday... my day of rest.

It's hard to say exactly what happened...I went to prayers and then to Church...after all I am on pilgrimage, and this is Holy Island! The service was nice but quite ordinary really, I went forward for communion, the organ started to play, "He is Lord" and that was it, I was gone...overwhelmed with emotion. Tears just streamed out of me. I felt really embarrassed but ,managed to keep my head down so that not too many noticed. What was it? An overwhelming sense of relief, accomplishment? Perhaps, but also for me a real sense that I was totally not alone.It came on me as a wave when I was not expecting it. The word I will put here are that I felt overwhelmed with the love of God...of course if you do it believe that is possible, you will need to find other explanations, I cannot and for me that answer fits the bill. 

So to the rest of the day... wonderful pub fish n chips, with the Marathon in the background....hmmm, 3 or 4 hours running and all that celebration. Still I picked up some amazing stories... the man running with Motor Neurone Disease the illness which took my Mother! While I was nearing Lindisfarne, and struggling, I did once think, cor it would be nice to have someone to cheer me home. (Now I realise I am in fantasy land now!) As I rode over the last hill, a flock of sheep sensed me approach and set the baa baaas off...to me, very exhausted as I was it was the applause I needed to get over the line. 

And so I did arrive, in many ways yesterday...and the applause went on. Was it mine to God or his to me? I sat looking at the sea...(picture below) and their were ducks... and then seals, bobbing around, I swear playing hide and seek with me! Hallelujah.

Then there was the early evening walk across the receding tide to Cuthberts Island (below) As I descended a beautiful barn owl, swooped around me...for me more hallelujah's. This truly is a holy wonderful place. I simply hope and pray that as a results of my visit, I too may become more in tune, more holy more free, more of what and who I like the owl, was meant to be.