'Doing' versus 'Being'

The little puffins on the island of Staffa - so gorgeous, so funny, they are called clown birds - I had never given the creatures any thought, apart from the fact that they are the image of Puffin Books - I had never seen one face to face, so to speak. I will await the far superior images from the superior cameras of friends (I keep being promised..story of my life...) and when I get them, you will be the first to know...

The second picture was taken while I was sitting and thinking, or not thinking, rather just 'being', in the lvoley little garden at the front of the Abbey..the view is across to Mull. I had one or two conversations with a close friend about the merits of 'being' as opposed to 'doing' during the week. I thought it would be good to spend time without the distractions of work, a mobile phone (no signal) or a laptop, and spend time walking, talking, sharing, or just 'being' in the peace of the island. Wrong!! All other distractions were replaced with top of the range digital camera, so he was darting about taking pictures every ten seconds from every angle: during the pilgrimage, when the whole point is to walk, think and 'be', especially at the stopping points when there would be a reading, song and meditation: when I looked round for someone to share these precious moments with, he was gone, snapping at the view....now I know I will be grateful when he shares the resulting photos with me..but such a manic disposition did make me question (and so I made him question!!) could he ever, ever, for the good of his soul, stop doing, and just 'be'?

I discovered that Iona, for me, was a place to stop and 'be', away from home, work, family; a place to try and find myself, and God, if that is not much of a cliche.

This week has been a week of doing, back at work, lots to catch up on, bereavement counselling, where I took time to reflect on the experience of Iona for me - much needed time - and on Saturday, a long hot day on a stall on St Albans market, and supervising volunteers with collecting tins, for our annual street collection day. While everyone else was watching the football, I was selling second hand books and talking to people....did I mind? No, not at all. It was a peaceful if hot afternoon, until the match ended and the pubs emptied, and quite a few young men appeared to need to shout England's victory to all and sundry, while at the same time wave their sweaty t-shirts above their heads and reveal their sweaty bodies and tattoos to me. Too much information, really.

The day was wonderfully finished off by a summer's evening outing, with a friend with an open top car, DC, plus Chris E (front desk colleague) and Dave Sh (Info booth and good mate) for a long overdue evening out in a local pub garden, complete with river and geese and goslings wandering around, followed by a Chinese, and hairy ride home (I knew the sober person should have driven) with a few laughs along the way. Perfect.