“I arise today with the strength of Heaven
light of the sun, splendor of fire,
speed of lightening, swiftness of the wind,
depth of the sea, stability of the earth
firmness of the rock”

— St. Patrick's Breastplate

Today was a beautiful day! I think that all days are beautiful regardless of the weather, but today was our first day without any moisture in the air or rain! The timing was perfect, given what we had planned.

We started the day with meditation, where we reflected on the concept of freedom and allowing oneself to be open to new possibilities. We were joined by our last two pilgrims at breakfast, so we are now a group of magic 14. Susan’s talk today took us deeper into the heart of Celtic spirituality. We started with the prayer which is excerpted above, and we discussed how Celtic spirituality is a non-dual theology. So beautiful, and Susan has such a lovely way of condensing the information so that you feel it in your heart. The word of the day is Hope, and we talked about how with the above words starting your day, how could you feel anything but hope for a great day?

Yoga continued this theme of connection as we prayed and moved to the four directions. With the sun shining, the yoga room was even more beautiful today with all of the interplay of light.

After lunch, we gathered to take our long awaited Cliffs of Moher walk! What a day to do it! Clear blue skies made the spectacle that much more amazing. In addition, we have been experiencing a lot of wind, but today was calm. Scott taught us that the cliffs are limestone capped with shale and a little bit of soil. We were able to get up close to a cross section of the shale and soil, but certainly not the limestone, as you can see in the blog picture! Scott’s sharp eyes also spied some puffins down the cliffs on a green space. He attracted many other walkers who were interested in learning about the rocks and the animals of the area. We walked a long a long section of the cliffs, and some of us even enjoyed a few outdoor yoga postures overlooking the cliffs!

The one downside of the cliffs today was that there were lots of other people enjoying them. I always have mixed feelings about situations like that, as I love when people are truly enjoying the outdoors and hope that they take this love home with them, but having a beautiful spot to ourselves is also nice, and so it was in some ways a relief to return to the center after the walk.

Some of us took a swim, others had ice cream, went shopping or to a pub, meditated, had a massage, relaxed as we got ready for dinner. We have had and will have full days, so a little downtime was appreciated by all of us.

Dinner today was again a lovingly prepared vegetarian meal capped off with a dessert. The tea is great, and the conversation is lively. One of us is creating a limerick a day on a challenge and this has gotten to be one of our favorite parts of the day, when we get to hear the limerick!

Deeply grateful for a beautiful day and all of the connections, we invite you to start each day with hope, perhaps fortified by the above prayer.