Home now.

Well, we arrived home safely the day before yesterday - both glad I think, to be back after a very busy and lovely visit to the UK.

I need not have been apprehensive about my visits to the monasteries where the sisters I had parted from 3 years ago were now living. The welcome I received moved me very much; it was warm and full of loving friendship and care. Also, one of the things I had not so much anticipated was that these visits enabled me to see other sisters whom I knew well and to share with them why it was that I felt I needed to leave my religious life. Most would have heard only second-hand and now at least, there was the possibility for them to ask questions if they wished or to engage in dialogue. It was for me altogether very healing and I am grateful. Not so many years ago leaving religious life was something done in secret without the opportunity to say goodbye - I am so grateful for the change and for the huge loving generosity of my sisters.

One of the things I also did was to turn up on the doorstep of the old monastery to visit the new owner and to see if we could look around the grounds at least. Here again though, we were given a lovely welcome and a tour inside and out.  It seems still to be a work in progress but it is so good to see what James and Tracey are choosing to do with the space and how lovingly everything is being undertaken. There are big changes but just the sorts of ones you would expect in returning the building to a private home. I was so grateful to see how beautifully it is being created anew, though of course memories came rushing back as each new space reminded me of a life and lives that had been lived there in such a different way. 

I think I have heard it said that old houses may have many memories somehow stored in their walls and I feel that might be especially true of this one. It is 126 years old and for only 27 of those was it a monastery. Otherwise it has always been a family house - the principal one of the village.  Still, I do feel that those 27 years infused the house with a very special gift of prayer and faithful human living that focused that 'space' on God . So I pray that James and Tracey and their family will imbibe that special gift and live happily and safely in it. 


Finally, I want to say what a joy it was to have this time with my niece Susan. She was a very attentive and generous companion. This was, in so many ways, my trip, into territory she did not know. She came without complaint and while I was visiting with the sisters she was left to her own resources, often in rather isolated rural areas. However, she also shared in some most unusual monastic experiences - things that most people would not see, so perhaps that will be a special memory for her. I am truly grateful to her.