Give yourself the gift of stillness,
Both outside and in.
Reach for the wonder of each moment.
Be transfixed by the beauty,
In a flower, a life, a beloved face.
Love is born afresh in every moment of the day,
If only we have eyes to see,
And ears to hear,
The wonder of it.
Christine Sine
Is it worth it?….
”I hope it was worth the two days to get there….”
This is what a friend texted me as I landed in Scotland this week. Sadly, she has never been to Scotland.
For me, Scotland is always worth it! It’s a thinplace. A place where the veil between heaven and earth is thin. A place where it’s easy to feel God’s presence and notice the Creator because of all the beauty.
It is the place I go to reconnect to myself and to Jesus and where I get the cup of my life refilled. And after this summer, and “ all the things” of family illnesses and politics, my cup was empty.
The friend who texted, rarely leaves the comforts of home and doesn’t seek places that change her. She isn’t open to new things or new adventures.
And this makes me sad for her because she misses out on all the wonder, and all the change and all the growth of pilgrim living.
I started started going on pilgrimage in the early 2000’s. My friend Mike King told me about taking his kids on journeys of faith to places where people of faith had lived and prayed. I was inspired and wanted to do the same. So we began with Mac and Hudson and took them to the Holy Island of Lindesfarne, to France, to Ireland and to Iona. Rob and I first heard the term thinplace in Oxford back in 2001. Rob was in a workshop led by Esther de Waal . We came home and wondered how to create thinplace in our regular lives and started helping other people find their thinplace. In finding Celtic Christianity, I discovered that I wasn’t crazy, I was just Celtic. And this discovery of Celtic Christianitey has kept me following Jesus ever since. Also, thanks to ancestry.com and looking into my family tree, I now know that I have deep roots genetically in Western Scotland. So it makes sense that I feel at home as soon as I get off the plane.
Seek your thinplace
So why go on pilgrimage? Why seek your thinplace ?
–Pilgrimage transforms us both inside and out….if we are open and curious.
If we are willing to take the time to pay attention.
If we are willing to be open to the questions and take time to be in process.
What does God want to talk to me about?
What do I need to understand about myself?
What new vision do I need going forward?
What do I notice that I haven’t been paying attention to in my life?
What is God’s invitation to me?
Finding Your Thinplace Pilgrims
I am looking for twelve fellow pilgrims to go with me on a journey of discovery and creativity. It won’t be a long walk like the Camino de Santiago. There will be walking to some very beautiful beaches and a hike around the island of Iona if you choose that adventure. There will be amazing meals together at the St. Columba Hotel where we will spend seven nights. It will be our home while we explore the wonder of this physical thinplace and allow God to help us find our own thinplaces.
This pilgrimage is about experience and experiential learning not just more information…and plenty of time to explore on your own and take naps too because rest is holy.
We start our journey together in Oban and leave our tourist selves behind. Actually we choose to leave our tourist selves behind when we make a reservation. We start to allow the God who calls us all, to start surprising us along the way in our daily lives, watching for signs of God’s love and care for us. From a bird’s song to special color, God can speak to us through everything, we just need to open our ears, our eyes and our hearts.
So YES! A BIG YES! Scotland is WORTH IT! and taking time to find your thinplace is always worth it!
Pilgrimage is an investment in yourself and a Gift from God.
I hope you can join me Sept 1-9, 2025 on Pilgrimage. Finding Your Thinplace in Scotland on Iona
iona abbey view
Iona… “ A few places in the world are held to be holy, because of the love which consecrates them, and the faith that enshrines them. One such is Iona. It is a small isle, fashioned of a little sand, a few grasses, salted with the spray of an ever-restless wave, a few rocks that wade in the heather, and upon whose brow the sea-wind weaves the yellow lichen. But since the remotest days, sacrosanct men (and women) have bowed here in worship. In this little island, a lamp was lit whose flame lighted pagan Europe.
From age to age, lowly hearts have never ceased to bring their burden here. And here HOPE waits. To tell the story of Iona, is to go back to God, and to end in God. “ Fiona Macleod
Questions about the pilgrimage? Just Ask findingyourthinplace@gmail.com
This is the reason we have no ease of heart or soul,
For we are seeking our rest in trivial things, which cannot
satisfy, and not seeking to know God, almighty, all-wise, all good. God is true rest.
Julian of Norwich
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com