I’ve been flat out all day doing stuff. Nails, eyebrows, a trip to the dentist for a filling, voted YES and mailed my survey – all the important things when going on a holiday.

I’ve packed and repacked.  Culled and added and culled again. And now I’m sitting waiting for a ride to the airport.

Now it’s time to leave my family and meet the people who will be my family for the next two weeks.

I said goodbye to Josh this morning when I dropped him at the station. I farewelled Harry this afternoon when I picked him up from the station. These goodbyes were not without copious tears. It’s the one thing I hate about travel – leaving loved ones behind.

So I now set my eyes on the pilgrim road to Ireland and recall the thoughts I jotted down at our first briefing:

I’m being invited to see and experience the land that Brigid walked and ministered. To feel the ancient traditions of Celtic Christianity.

It will require that I open myself up to loving and being loved by people I don’t know and whom the only thing I have in common with so far is that we teach in catholic schools of a particular tradition.

It will challenge me to step outside my comfort zone in relation to meeting new people. To be willing to share the journey I’m on and enter the journeys of others.

I am going to find the Brigid of myth and reality. To take what I find to inspire my students. To wonder at the possibility of bringing girls to Ireland, taking them on Brigid’s path as well.

I hope the road rises up to meet me and that God has me (and Josh and Harry)  in the palm of his hand.

Dublin here I come!