Travelling across the Scottish Borders to catch the ferry to Ireland, my mind was occupied with the memories of my parents. The day before I had driven down early in the morning to join my sister at St. Mary’s island just off the coast at Whitley Bay to scatter my father’s ashes. The year before we had done the same with my Mum’s ashes. In contrast to that morning when with my Dad we had scattered Mum’s ashes, it was a beautiful still morning, blue skies, the glistending sun shimmering on the sea. It was obviously a very sad happening but it was calm, gentle and serene ~ just like my Dad was. In contrast when we scattered my Mum’s ashes, it was beautiful but wild. She had always harboured the desire to travel over the North sea to Norway. Well bless her, that morning last year, it was so windy that probably some of her remains got there on the wind and the waves! ~ A thought that she would find highly amusing. Different from my Dad, she was nevertheless like him, a great person, fabulous mother, great fun and very passionate.
The journey to the ferry port which I’d taken with them on many occasions both to Ireland and more often to the Scottish Hebrides, was one flooded with very happy memories and this time accompanied with several episodes of shedding tears.
Driving into Belfast I arrived, opened the door of my eldest son and daughter in law’s house, only to be greeted by my eldest grandson who charged towards me shouting, “Granddad I love you”. It was such a beautiful moment. Unbidden, unprompted, a spontaneous display of affection and bonding that did so much to comfort my grieving heart.
New Beginnings?
Two hours later and I was meeting in a café next to the university in Belfast with a really exciting group of people who are connecting with and exploring the Community. Having prayed and journeyed to Ireland for years, I have a sense that we are about to see something significant taking place among these and other people for whom the Community is becoming their spiritual home and a way for giving a fresh and new expression of faith in Ireland North and South.
Facilitated by close friends, Ken and Claire, it was a lovely evening which concluded with the delight of picking Shirley, my wife, up who had flown in for 24 hours to join me and spend a day herself with our grandsons, Isaac and Patrick.
The following day I was speaking at a Gathering for Leaders across Northern Ireland in a wonderful hotel near Ballymena. It was an excellent and very stimulating day which was about creating a safe space for leaders to reflect on their own relationship with God, themselves and others. Organised by another close friend, Stephen, who has been in many ways a gate keeper for our own Community in Ireland, again it felt that something of significance was stirring.
I then journeyed down to pick up Joshua, our youngest son’s gear from Trinity Dublin where he is completing his PhD looking at how religious language shaped the Protestant community during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The drive down was lovely and the sun glistening on the new glass fronted buildings in Dublin and on the old but magnificent buildings of Trinity College gave space for reflection. It was great to see Joshua who is clearly thriving in such an academic environment.
There is nothing like a pint of Guinness in a Dublin city bar to savour the atmosphere of Irish culture. I bade Joshua farewell and made my way back to Belfast arriving before midnight to crash out and enjoy a well deserved and restful sleep before a further visit to Isaac and Patrick, taking them out for a walk and ending up having such fun in a café to the amusement of other customers. Being a granddad is just one of life’s great blessings and to share with young lives, (3 and 2) is both fun but also enlightening. To appreciate how children see life and to witness their engagement with different situations and people is fascinating.
Leaving them and returning home, I come away from Ireland, a place that I both love and loathe, with a profound sense of thankfulness to God and an intuitive sense that we will see some exciting things develop there in the coming days.
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