River in Scotland

Continued from Glasgow Weekend -April 30 - part 2 Hello again, travel companions. It is now actually late Monday morning (11:30am-ish) and I am sitting in the Heraklion airport arrivals area. awaiting Chris and Judy who will arrive at 2:05pm. They are in Athens now and their plane to Crete departs at 1:10pm.  I notice how comforting I find exact times when I am in transition and in unfamiliar surroundings. The precision of numbers gives a comforting illusion of certainty and control. That thought makes me smile.  And my mind segues to the scarf that the Glasgow girls gave me as I left: a bold pink and green scarf that proclaimed Celtic club. As I was going through passport check after my flight from Glasgow a fellow traveler noticed the scarf and gave me a big grin, thumbs up, and fighting fists. What a sweet funny experience of belonging to a club I could not imagine belonging to. Here’s a photo of Callum and Lydia celebrating the Celtic victory over the Rangers (sent by Natalie).  Be

Continued from Glasgow Weekend - April 30 - part 1 Thank you so so much for joining me in holding Katie and her whole beautiful family in hands of light, and for praying for them in your own way. I hope we can help gently open the way for a miracle of healing for each and all of them.  I just finished eating a delicious coffee flavored crisp wafer cookie from Slovenia (where Natalie grew up) sent to her as part of a care package of Slovenian treats from her Mum. It tastes so so sweet, and I am glad to be breaking my sugar fast and receiving these gifts of love.  Natalie grew up on a small village in Slovenia and came to Edinburgh for university. Katie’s grew up in Glasgow, in neighborhoods where the gang culture was very much alive all around her. She was 5 when her Mum went to work in the pub where she still works and where Katie had worked. The owners of the pub were aunt and uncle to her and she came to know all the people who come to the pub as a kind of extended family. Natalie’s

Sunday April 30.     Glasgow.   Greetings, fellow wayfarers. Here I am on the airplane on my way to Heraklion, Crete. Sister Judy is also in the air in her long journey from Shell Beach CA to Los Ángeles to Newark to Athens to Heraklion. Chris is also in the air, having left Orcas yesterday for the ferry ride to the mainland, then the drive to Seattle. She got to the airport at 4am for an early morning departure this morning. I believe she and Judy will meet up in Newark, then fly the rest of the way together (I think they even managed to get seats together).  I will arrive Heraklion at 10:30pm tonight (8:30pm in Scotland - the time zone I’ve grown accustomed to in the past month). I will stay at a hotel near the airport then join them when they arrive Heraklion (2:30pm tomorrow).  We will meet up with the car rental driver from Frangokastello (on the southwest coast of Crete) who will drive us to Fata Morgana apartments where we will spend the next two weeks soaking up sun, relaxing,

Continued from Glasgow Weekend- Friday April 28-part 2 I have really been moved by the warmth and nurturance in this family. When I was a little girl, having someone lovingly brush and braid my hair was the epitome of nurturance. I have loved watching Lydia brush Natalie’s  hair and Katie braid Lydia’s hair.  Oops - it is Saturday morning and I just realized I never finished or ousted this! Watched a great Scottish comedy on TV with the Glasgow girls while nibbling a wonderful array of food - Katie lives go cook and loves to present food. She works as a beautician and obviously creating beauty is one of her great joys in life. Tomorrow (I mean today but I will probably not post a blog til tomorrow) we will visit Edinburgh as well as Lydia’s dance class and I hope Kate’s mother’s pub. I didn’t tell you yet that Kate’s mother works in a pub! And so has Kate! Now if that isn’t the perfect finishing touch for my whisky pilgrimage I don’t know what is or could be.  See you in Edinburgh, at

Continued from Glasgow Weekend - Friday April 28 - part 1 We went out to dinner last night at a “world buffet” - including Indian, Chinese, Italian and Scottish food and Sushi bar and I suspect others. It was the biggest buffet I have ever seen. Maybe this photo gives a hint of the scale and how many choices.  I was and am amazed that I could experience it with childlike wonder and awe rather than my usual sense in cities (when I’ve just come down from the quiet and solitude of the trail) that it’s all too much - too many people, too much noise and confusion.  I attribute the ease of transition in part to beginning my visit with a glass of good Scottish beer (to be followed after dinner with Prosecco). For all the villain using I have done of alcohol in my life, I now admit that as Leonard Cohen sings “When I turned my back on the devil, I turned my back on the angel too.” Yes. Alcohol is both muse and monster as I realized listening to Robby Burns.  But it wasn’t just devil-angel, mus

Friday, April 28. It’s Friday afternoon and I’ve had a lovely day in Glasgow after arriving yesterday afternoon. One of the loveliest parts has been writing my blog. The worst part is that the post, which was essentially finished, just disappeared. Gone. The app I use does this from time to time. Magically makes my posts disappear and I have to start all over again. It has definitely happened before but never when I’d written so much. So let’s see if I can write it again - my personal challenge is to enjoy writing it as much as I did the first time.  So let’s start with Katie and Natalie, two young women Chris and I met in Venice for about 10 minutes last spring and with whom we’ve exchanged texts several times since (which hadn’t mentioned that they have two kids - so I have the unexpected joy of meeting Kallum 8 and Lydia 10). Katie’s their birth mom but Natalie’s been co-parenting for over 5 years. The kids were at their weekly overnight with Katie’s mum Thursday so I didn’t meet t