Susan T's Thin Place :
Iona Remembered
I felt this spirituality around
me and I remember saying,
Just leave me here.
My thin place is too far away for me to visit, and right now exists for me more in memory than reality, but I have a memento that recalls it to me whenever I need.
It was a lonely, unhappy time in my life and I was living in New York in August and it was just horribly hot.
I was asked to go to Scotland to do a concert at the Edinburgh Festival. At a dinner before the event, I sat next to someone from the Bureau of Tourism who mapped out a trip for my friend and me.
We went to this little island called the Isle of Moll. And from the Isle of Moll you went to this smaller island called the Isle of Iona.
We got there and I felt something just lift.
I was surrounded by water and it was so far from anything. I had this sense when I was there that everything would be okay.
I felt this spirituality that was just around me and I thought … I remember saying, “Just leave me here. Just leave me here.”
It was many years ago, so I remember the feeling I had much more than I remember the physical parts of it.
There were nuns there that made pottery. This pitcher means so much to me because it recalls that experience. It takes me right back.
Iona's not like a sunshiny kind of place at all, but I don’t think there’s anywhere I’ve ever been that I’ve responded to as much.
