Spiritual Roots

I know, I know - you're probably getting pretty tired of hearing about my Roots, but bear with me for one more post (and I'll try not to say too much more in the future).

Yet again I caught up with the British "Songs of Praise" programme over the weekend, where they interviewed a guy who runs a Celtic retreat and makes Cumbrian harps (suddenly I want to learn to play the harp!).

I've longed for a time/place of retreat for ages, but it's almost impossible for me as a single parent with no family/friends/babysitters nearby to take time off and go away on my lonesome for a few days. Just wouldn't work, which is why I take mini-retreats in solitude and silence wherever I can find them - for a few minutes outside in the garden, during my bathtime, while walking the mountain. That's about all I'm likely to find right now, so it's Quality instead of Quantity time, I'm afraid!

But "retreat" can also be a lifestyle. For years I've drawn on an inner pool of calm in times of stress, a pool that I take time out to refill when I can, one that drought can't get at, but which can be emptied by too much rushing and not enough sitting.

And although I don't know too much about it, there is a stirring in my heart when I hear talk of Celtic spiritual practices and lifestyle.

It's those Roots again - my DNA programmed toward hints of my ancestry.

This week, when time allows, I'm going to try learn more about my Celtic roots, especially in the area of living spiritually. (I have this urge to build a standing-stones place and celebrate seasons, but that's a whole different story! :) I could have had a Druid or two in the family a long time ago for all I know.) I want to investigate what it is that draws my soul toward this, and if it may be a way for me to get out of a place of desolation and learn to truly Be in a better and more real way.

I know many who have rediscovered the old practices and ways of learning, praying, living that the Celts did. I find the prayers and practices beautiful, those that I know about at least.

So this week is research week - once I've finished off the gigantic to-do list waiting for me this Monday morning.