The autumnal equinox has wheeled around once again. Every year I am reminded how this season has become my favourite season. Historically lacking the consumerist trappings of Christmas or Easter, it has been free to explode a worthy celebration on the world without forcing it into a plastic mould. Without knocking the lovers of pumpkin spice lattes, I can’t help…
Roads are thin spaces. I often romanticize thin spaces — their defiance of clear boundaries and their endless possibilities. They represent a reality of spiritual realms that are often rationalised in our pulpits and pews. And I love them for it. The world can drain for us even the desire to believe in what can’t be understood, and thin spaces…
The Welsh have a word that possesses no definite translation: hiraeth. Roughly, it means: missing something, longing for places and spaces that feel like home. It is a word heavy with sound, breath, beauty, and meaning. I’m reminded once again how impoverished the English language is, how careless. What’s worse, we English-speakers don’t even care about its poverty. We’re content…
I walked off the edge. And I jumped. And I was pushed. And I sat teetering on the brink. I don’t know why particularly. I wouldn’t refer to myself as a thrill-seeker (unless, of course, you count mixing four kinds of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream together in preparation for a Lord of the Rings Director’s Cut marathon; but even…
I was able to spend some time on Bardsey Island/Ynys Enlli on the tip of the Llyn Peninsula, Wales. Known as the Island of 20,000 Saints, it is fabled to be one of the resting places of the elusive Holy Grail. Three pilgrimages to this island are equivalent to one pilgrimage to Rome. Apparently I’m one third of the way!…
The day is gray and cloudy outside, but the drizzle has stopped. I’m going through all of my things, packing up again, and preparing for my few days on the fabled Bardsey Island. There won’t be any wifi out there, so I’ll be off-grid for the duration. It’s been a week of steep challenges. On Saturday I went coasteering off…
I walked a portion of the North Wales Coastal Pilgrimage Trail today — Aber Falls. . An old area of Britain, with ruins littering the landscape. Some of these archeological wonders are around 4000 years old, some date back to Roman times, others to the medieval era, and few from around the time of the Enlightenment. These paths have been…
As you read this, I’m trekking about the ancient lands of northeast Wales. I’ve arrived just in time to celebrate Lammas or Lughnasad on August 01. Lugh is the Celtic Sun god and August is his sacred month often celebrated in lively Fire Festivals. As I come to understand more the connections between Christianity and paganism, the more I…
It’s time again for the summer solstice — Litha, Alban Heruin, Midsummer. The axial tilt of our earth is the nearest to the sun as it will ever be during the entire year. In Celtic lore, the four albans mark the two solstices as well as the two equinox days. Alban Heruin marks the celebration of the peak of summer…
“Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” (Mark 9:7) Sacraments are those wondrously mundane visible acts of inward grace. For some of us there are seven; for others there are two; and for some there are none. In trying to understand how the sacraments intersect with…
