Searching again

While the calendar may say June 20 this year is the first day of summer, we actually measure the start of summer in many different ways. Some say it’s when the kids get out of school, some say it is Memorial day weekend. For me, two things typically mark the beginning of my summer. One, the spring semester is over. All my end of the semester reports are done, and summer time begins. This year the spring semester was completed on May 13. The other way I measure the onset of summer is by temperature, and in Northwest Louisiana when the temperature gets to 90 F and the humidity matches it, that’s summer. Occurred about May 10th this year. Regardless of what measure I use, summer time is my searching time, and it is now time for another search. I embark again on a search for thin places, by returning to a familiar local – Scotland and the Isle of Iona. As a reminder, the name of the blog “searching for thin places” is a reference to finding those places where heaven and earth are not separated. The Celts believed that a “thin place” was just such a place. The Isle of Iona is celebrated as a thin place. I want to believe that there is no separation between the spaces, but our preoccupation with life as we experience it, causes the gap. When we take the time and are mindful, we locate these places. For me, I am striving to make the search a daily occurrence and not a summer time activity. But for now… I remove myself from the typical daily existence and enter into a new rhythm of life on a tiny island off the west coast of Scotland, where I don’t have to travel to see the world, because the world comes to rest there. Join me.