Woomble/Iona Thought Number One (May '09)

"Every line of a long moment written down in my handwriting
It makes me feel free to do anything
As I look out across the wall
Look out across the wall and into the Atlantic
Look out across the wall
Look out across the wall and into the Atlantic"

Roddy Woomble. - Every Line of a Long Moment.

After being back on Iona for a week I have decided that Roddy Woomble (re-introduced to me through Eilidh) is amazing and that some of his lyrics sum up various moments of Iona.

"Watch time stop and start again"

Time stops. Time starts. It doesn't seem to flow the same as anywhere else. Not on Iona.

One moment it's Sunday morning and all is manic. The next moment all is calm and it's Tuesday lunch time. The next moment it's Tuesday evening healing service madness. The next moment you know and it's Friday evening, the guests have left and the staff are together again.

Time does not work on Iona as it does in the rest of the world. Time elongates ifselt. It shrinks itself. Days are eternal. Days are invisible.

How? I don't know. I never have known and don't think I ever will. But it's comforting. In a strange way. The times to treasure are always there, whether short or long. This strange way of time enforces the fact that it's the big and the small things in life that make life what life is. No two moments are the same. You can be doing the same thing, following the same routine, filling the same candels, washing the same dishes, having the same 'where are you from?' conversations, eating the same meals; yet those same moments are never actually the same. They are oh so different. Each moment a different breath of life, different things to experience, different people around, different smells and sounds, different thoughts and moods.

As the famous quote says, Iona is a thin place. Yet it's time is even thinner. To me at least.