From my home, the Mount of Oaks to Annahavil in the North part of Ireland, where my mother in law lives.
I will stop in Taizé to have a break and some time of collective prayer with song and silence. For those who don´t know, Taizé is an ecumenical community of Prayer and Peace, started by Brother Roger, a swiss follower of Christ who, in his twenties, during the 2nd World War, decided to go to France and help refugee people who were in need in those troubled times, mainly Jews. He was denounced for his activities and had to go back to Switzerland and in 1944 when France was liberated he went back to Taizé to pray, now together with a few brothers who started to form the community he envisioned.
An amazing ecumenical place of prayer, hospitality and silence, and one of the inspirations for me before coming to the Mount of Oaks. I´m hoping to receive again more inspiration as I visit this time. Afterall, in a very small scale, Mount of Oaks has also been a place of prayer, of hospitality, of peace and healing for all those who have passed by over the last 20 years. We are not affiliated or recognised by any religious institution, as we feel we are definitely not institutional, and our theology is more universal as we feel it is the best way to approach and live in the times we are living in today. Christ is the Spirit who brought us to this land, and it is the Spirit that guides us, and as the earlier followers wrote " Christ is all, and is in all", and "God is the one in whom we live, and move and have our being"... What one calls God, or how one communes with God, is up to each one and one´s journey. God, with the many names and faces throughout the world and the many cultures and languages, wants us to Love one another, including our neighbours,the strangers and even our enemies... God wants us to Love this planet Earth, our Mother, and to pray and connect with the One who calls us in our many diverse paths, ways and languages.
Mount of Oaks is starting another new chapter, and I decided to take a sabbatical year this year, together with Emma, even though we will take this rest in our different ways.
We are very blessed as when this idea came to my mind, I didn't really know how would that be possible since, after 20 years of guardianship of this land, it was still only me and Emma with a long term committment... This was the end of the summer and at the time I was with Francisco helping local people who got affected by the wildfires in their lands. Francisco has been a brother for some years and I knew he had the desire to be a guardian of land like us. At that time he was also in a change of chapters in his life and I felt to ask him directly if he would consider the guardianship of Mount of Oaks for a year (at least), so that our Sabbatical rest would be possible. He said yes. And a whole preparation began.
We started in March, going to Angola and visiting my mum and family and now we also want to visit Emma´s mum and family in Ireland. That´s when I started to combine this idea with my desire for a long walk or bike trip. I will leave the hiking for the Autumn I think, and possibly more locally.
Initially I was thinking to go totally off-road and more into the wild, as I prefer, but that would take me much longer and I will probably save that for the walking trip as it´s easier to find nicer spots when hiking.
I might even cross some cities, or go quite near them, as I´m looking at more direct routes as well. As you can see in my possible route, I will cross through London, which I´m curious about how that will go. My friend Sayen, who lives right after the London bridge, got all excited about the idea of it, so I will have a pit stop there for sure.
I also want to fully trust the Spirit to guide me and provide all I will need. I will take my shelter and some food, but that will run out eventually and I´m hoping to always find a place to hang my hammock, but equally I want to be open to what comes. I always like the challenge to use the least amount of money as possible when I travel, just because everything these days is made for us to spend money all the time, and I don´t beleive that has to be a must.
I might create things and exchange for food, as I´m taking a few bushcraft tools and my wood carving set... or maybe washing some dishes or cleaning in restaurants or cafes in exchange for food...I will see what flows... I also would like to engage with those I will meet on the way, so I thought about making a banner to display on my bike with the word "COEXIST", surrounded by "LOVE ONE ANOTHER", using different religious symbols and maybe have some good conversations about Peace, about acceptance of different cultures and spiritual paths, about the new world we are all living in at the moment and ask people about their hopes and dreams for Europe. I will see what flows and what kind of emotions and feelings this image will create. This is only in my mind of course, it might turn out completely different than what I´m imagining, and I´m open for that too.
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