Last weeks blog provoked some pondering, what is it about communities that attracts us ? Communities come together in all forms from the obvious community of families related by blood and marriage, community groups from shared interests, shared work situations, shared experiences. Consider the depth of shared experience and feelings produced in a reality show, a heightened hothouse truncating the usual evolution of group develop,emt into a time of full immersion. This is not

We have arrived in this new year of 2022 with many social activities postponed or cancelled for the second year. In my case this situation gave me more time to reflect, but sadly not the enthusiasm to transfer these reflections to paper ! However at last, as we are now in mid January, here I am with ‘pen to paper’. Under open sky’s (both night and day) I have from time to time walked and reflected on the passing of the past year. This, of course, brought up the subject of th

Over the past three months I have lost 3 friends. Each relationship was very different and related to a different part of my life. One friendship was over 30 years, one over 50 years, and one of 65 years standing. This prompts the reflection that each life has a limited span, and this takes me on again to the thought that “Life is a Life Long Lesson” (regardless of how long that particular life is) I have mentioned before in this space that am fortunate to live in the High

We are now in the first week of December with all the excitement, noise and chaos that this time of year brings. Last weekend my family joined me here at home, just for 24 hours. We do this every year at this time as we have so many family birthdays. So we make the most of it, reconnecting, chatting, eating/drinking, and the grandchildren put up my Christmas tree. Much laughter, noise, and each year the children perform or talk about something that is new or important to

This year, (and this morning) the glory of the autumn colours has given me pause to think about the cycle of the seasons, and why some years are more spectacular than others. Is this due to circumstance of bad weather or blight throughout the year, or on other occasions does the nourishment of the sunshine and the refreshing rain encourage and result in this glory? Or is it a combination of the two, and is this echoed in our human cycle? Sometimes we require to be buffeted by

The Cistercian Abbey of Sancta Maria and historical Nunraw Abbey Guest house are located in the Lammermuir Hills of East Lothian, Scotland. The community of Monks live a contemplative life of prayer, simple manual labour and works of charity, living harmoniously with one another. From the outside, the abbey at Nunraw looks remarkable ~ a large grey utilitarian building, perched on a hillside in a clearing in some pine trees. I spend a couple of days at the adjoining guest ho

Is this what we call “life experience ?” …. or ….. “learning by experience ?” I have been asked to write a few words as a Blog – my response was “ what is a blog?” I am still not sure what the answer is to either question, so please bear with me while I ponder a while. Today as I mull this over, it becomes clear that ALL of life is learning, and the experience is what we do with the learning. Or maybe the learning is what we have from the experience ? Should I put that las

We are live with our new website! This last year has seen lots of changes within our community. We have rebranded and yes, we have a new name the Open Sanctuary, as well as a new logo. We struggled for a long time with the name, The Community of Mystic Healers which came from Rev Jude Will’s book, Jude is one of our co-founders. We have a new name, new logo and new website, but our core beliefs and values remain the same. We strive to be our best selves each day, we actively