During the course of my 8-week stay there as a volunteer with the Iona Community in 2012, I bought Jane Bentley+Neil Paynter’s really excellent book “Around A Thin Place” (an Iona pilgrimage guide) and, as well as using it when I was on Iona, I have subsequently used it as a resource for my own Bristol pilgrimage version on four previous occasions – but (I see from my previous blog posts) that the last time was back in 2017.
Yesterday, I decided to undertake a fifth ‘pilgrimage’ journey around Bristol… in part as a practical response(?) to my ongoing journey through what has become something of a ‘spiritual wilderness’.
This time, I divided my route into eight sections or stops… pausing for reflections taken from the book, together with my own deliberations. Each time I’ve done this, I’ve used a completely different set of locations but, unlike on my previous walks, the weather was disappointingly bleak (very light rain for virtually all of the walk) - duly illustrated by my poor-quality photographs – but nevertheless strangely refreshing.
As before (perhaps bizarrely), I related my stopping points with pilgrimage stops on Iona:
St Martin’s Cross/setting out on the road was the Cathedral; The Crossroads was the area around Broken Dock (adjacent footpaths/roads/ferries/river); St Columba’s Bay was the stretch of the River Avon beyond the Plimsoll Swingbridge; the Marble Quarry was Leigh Woods/Rownham Hill Wood; Dun I/High Point was the Clifton Suspension Bridge; The Machair was Clifton Village; Hermit’s Cell was Bird Cage Walk; and St Oran’s Chapel/Reilig Odhrain was Brandon Hill.
I really enjoyed making my pilgrimage walk again – and especially as it was the first since we moved from Southville (and therefore took on a somewhat different character). I was also reminded how much I’ve valued the wise, thought-provoking reflections contained in the ‘Thin Place’ book. It also reminded me that I perhaps need to start re-using daily readings and meditations from the Iona Community again (I have several books on my shelves).
An enjoyable and fulfilling morning.
Photos: rather ‘watery’ photographs from my ‘pilgrimage’.
No comments:
Post a Comment