Today I am just outside of Ballycastle, Northern Ireland, UK in the Corrymeela Community for a weekend retreat.

I booked this retreat labelled, “Stillness in Community” months ago before my massive surgery on July 5th and before I knew there would be complications necessitating a second surgery three weeks to the day later. I booked it before my wife got larger and larger with our son who is due Dec. 28th but will come when he decides and in his terms. I booked it before I felt a major blockage in writing and creativity.

For the first time, since I last wrote to you, dear reader, I have felt like opening up the wordpress page to see what I could relate to you. For the first time since my last entry in March, I have felt as though perhaps I had something to write. When I last wrote a blog, it was before I knew that I had a 23cm tumor in my body (that news would come in April). It wasn’t cancerous but it was consuming parts of me and I needed space. When I last wrote a blog it was before we gave it a shot and inseminated Ana and it was before it actually and miraculously worked and I had lots of emotions to go with such an epiphany. When I last felt the urge to write and be creative, it was before my recovery process began after the tumor was removed and my entire life changed, or so it felt.

And it was all before I decided for my own little pilgrimage to a country that was so special to me 20 years ago this year. I signed up for a retreat to find that spark again and by golly, it might have worked. There is something about the sea and the stillness and the wild greenness of this place that I knew was sure to work.

We shall see what happens but I am optimistically hopeful…

I hope you have been patient with me and want to hear about the ride I have been on and where we are going.

Thank you for holding this dear.