How Beautiful Upon the Mountain
At two we all gathered to climb Arthur’s Seat. That morning we had explored Edinburgh Castle, and spent the early afternoon wandering the City as we chose.
The path was just a slightly worn trail in the soft grassy turf. It felt springy even through a multiplicity of layers of wool and nylon and rubber—soon, it just became too much. I, and the few hikers hanging back with me, rebelled against conventional footwear. With shoelaces tied together and slung through the straps of our packs, we continued on barefoot.
Of course, of course, within a few metres (see, I’m getting the hang of this British lingo!) the path turned rocky and pokey and all around hurty. But by then of course it was a matter of honor—if Sam and Frodo could hike barefoot to Mordor, then by golly, we could stick it out to the top of this old hill! I’ve never felt more like a hobbit.
# # #
After all that walkin' and hikin' today, it was a long walk across the city to the house of Sandy and Isabelle Reid, but definitely worth it. Jamie played the pipes, sang, and told us stories,
(difficult for some because of lingering jet lag),
and then he taught us a dance (here with Isabelle):
Sandy,
and James):
At the end we sang a couple of hymns for them as well, and Isabella sent us on our journey with her blessing. I hope some of the students will let me put their comments on the events of the day into the blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment