Tea in the Garden
- angelaandjack
- May 20
- 3 min read
Dear Hearth Gathering followers please accept my sincere apologies for a week of silence.
Not a word about Lindisfarne Holy Island or St. Columba's Iona where we have been for three days. Perhaps I can blame it on the fine weather which disappeared with the wind and rain today! No excuses for not writing while retreating to the warmth of the Hotel Argyll.
Yesterday I had one of those totally unplanned experiences that differentiates a pilgrim from a tourist. It was a fine sunny day and we three had set off on various routes to the south west and south of Iona. Six minutes awat from arriving at the Bay at the Back of the Ocean (my planned destination) I stopped to say "it's a good day for weeding", to a white haired woman enthusiastically pulling weeds from a drive way. "Och, these are not my weeds, I'm just trying to encourage my young neighbour to take an interest", she said. I did a 180 degree turn and saw a colourful roadside display of flowering shrubs and mat like plants. Ah. I said, "this must be your garden. The plants are fantastic, do you mind if I take a photo?"
"Och "she said, "there is much more to the garden. Would you like a wee look?"
Would I like a wee look? Yes please! You will see what unfolded visually in the photos below however after a tour of the green house and the potting shed Jenny, who had finally told me her name, suggested I might like a wee sit and perhaps I would be willing to sign her visitor's book. After I had inscribed my name I had a quick look at other recent entries and found Anne and Andy Raine, foundation members of the Northumbria Community, whose daily prayer I say most days.
When she came back I commented on her famous visitors. She asked me if I knew Anne and Andy and I said, 'unfortunately only through their meditations in the Northumbria Daily Prayer.' Jenny immediately began to sing the opening verses of Morning Prayer and when I joined in it was as if I'd passed some kind of test!
Jenny was going to have a cup of tea - would I like one? As well as the tea she pulled a chocolate bar out of her pocket to tide me over to lunch time. And then we talked and talked finding connections in lots of unexpected places. Jenny had studied theology and scripture in a Scottish Borders branch of Cambridge University but struggled to find a place in ministry in the Church of Scotland at that time. She ran a Christian bookshop for 10 years and then came to Iona on retreat and ended up running the Dun Crag Retreat House for 15 years.
She has been Church Warden and in charge of the parish for two years when there was no Rector.
We talked theology, Celtic spirituality, parish politics and UK politics particularly her hope for Independence for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland who are working together to achieve this.
When she went inside to make me another cup of tea Jenny said that she had felt called to give me something but she wasn't sure where to find it.
When she handed me a beautiful hand painted card with a tree and Parker Palmer's question, "Is the life I am living the same as the life that wants to live in me?" she said it had been in the first drawer she looked in. When I finished the second cup of tea and the sun had gone behind the clouds she looked at her watch and said, 'i'm awfully sorry but I have to go now."
I looked at my watch and saw that it was 1.30 pm and almost 2 hours had elapsed!
As I set off it started to rain so I abandoned my planned trip to the bay and headed back into the Village for a very late lunch.
