BY JEAN P. KELLY
I SIT ON A damp wooden bench on a clover-covered island, surrounded on either side by a rushing, Guinness-colored river. The babble cradles my ears and slows my breathing. I inhale, almost tasting the sweet stench of roots that form cave-like hideaways under trees along the banks. Surely I’ve found the homes of faeries, so common in the lore of this country Ireland. Earthen walls form a cacophonous cocoon around me, blocking the view of the valley as it winds toward the strand and the Kenmare Bay. For both that unseen horizon and my narrow hiding place, surely a “thin place,” I offer gratitude. Then I release all thoughts, all questions, and all self-judgment.
I often imagine myself back in a thin place, where I first found both rest and authentic stillness: an island in a river in southern County Cork. Remarkably, I experienced both in the midst of a very painful life transition, leaving a 30-year abusive relationship with an active alcoholic and learning my youngest daughter had been hospitalized because of his neglect.
Continue reading “Saved by a Sacred Geography”
Jean P. Kelly, Intentional Path Media 