A place that speaks truths - Kintyre

I am dumped on my backside every time

Back from another wee visit to Kintyre and everything has slotted back in just how it should be. I feel my viewfinder on the world is more stable again. How can a place be so relied on to do all that? For me, Kintyre is a part of the world where you can not fail to be put back in your place. The problem with us humans is that, from time to time, we consider ourselves to be more important than we actually are. We like to think of ourselves as top of the food chain when, in reality, we are not. If we are not very careful we can get swept along with notions such as productivity, achievement, success and the like. These all shift our viewfinders away from our place within the natural world and pump up our egos. I am prone to multi-tasking which I now see as largely irrevelvant but a life time of doing it is still being unlearnt. Multi-tasking speaks well to productivity and I am guilty of that as well. Asking myself how productive my day has been. Why does that matter? Because I once had a senior role in a workplace that taught me the importance of that and I am (very) slowly unlearning that as well.

Then there is our resilience. I like to believe I am resilient but when I visit Kintyre I am humbled by resilience that appears to know no boundaries. As I sit amongst the flowering thrift plants I am touched by their beauty yet they face some of the biggest waves along the west coast of Scotland. I run my hand through the sand and incover a fragment of a shell beautifully tumbled by the waves but still intact enough to recognise. I look to the sky and the mountains of the Isle of Jura in the distance and the ‘Alice’ effect begins to kick in. Quietly and slowly I feel myself shrinking back to the size I truly inhabit in the natural world. Not better or even removed from the natural world but in my rightful place.

I drift back to the wee island I call home for further contemplation and more affirmations to take note of the learning offered to me by Kintyre. Imagine a world full of Kintyres where people could do nothing but inhabit their rightful place in the natural world?

So, thank you Kintyre for all you share with the world and all that you are. In my world you are my confidant, my mentor and, I hope, my friend. Everyone should visit Kintyre.