Island Life

 Imagine you could wake up every morning and see a view like this.

Imagine the silence and majesty of  hearing geese honking, the waves lapping, the cockrel crowing and the sheep baaing.

Imagine you work and live and chop wood and carry water (not just as a  metaphor).  You experience making bread, picking berries and making jam.  You get to see the process first hand of turning milk into yoghurt and then cheese.

You dig in the garden and then harvest and cook the vegetables you watch grow.

You can laugh and cry, connect deeply and chat lightly with the other small group people who are engaged in creating  community with you.

You go out at night into the blackness and marvel at the sky, the stars and the milky way so bright and clear.

For me and my family this is what our daily life has become.  I feel incredibly lucky to experience these things and many many more on Erraid.

It is an absolute gift.  The move here for me felt very much like my soul’s calling.  A longing to really find out what is essential in my life.  To go back to basics.

We moved into Pier Cottage about a month ago and it has been amazing to see ourselves land and grow and adapt to our new lifestyle.  Yes there are  challenges of midges, mud and an occasional questioning are we MAD? And there are the delights of compost toilets, honking geese, and high winds and lots of rain.  However if you wait 5 minutes it changes.  The wind drops, the sun comes out- often with an accompanying rainbow,  a conversation with another member of the community sets me right again, noticing how  my children have grown  and watching them interact and learn about their new environment.

When on the island I don’t miss the school run, the Mum’s taxi service, or the shops.  I don’t feel a longing for anything, I see that all my needs are being met, often in mysterious ways.  I see life is generous, kind and abundant in new ways that I have never experienced before.

A delightful walk with my daughter helps me see the wonderous gift of the natural beauty surrounding us, and makes the mother daughter connection so special as we scramble over hill and bog to discover new areas of our 1 square mile of natural beauty.

And now,  while I am off  the Island for a couple of weeks,  I see myself changed.  Not taking anything for granted.  Eating the eggs in the hotel and remembering the new chickens on Erraid.  Picking up a pot of Yoghurt and thinking of my new friend Katie and if she has made some more while I’m away. l I notice I am just feeling very grateful on my re-entry to “normal” western life as most of us know it.  I am just so amazed at all the conveniences surrounding me.  I notice so many things that normally I  take for granted.  On the Island I can’t just pop to the shop to buy what I want. I have to think twice about what I need.

I see living on Erraid has already made me slow down and be so very grateful for all I  have in each moment.  It has answered a calling in me to connect back to a more basic and natural way of living.  It has given me permission to drop my stories of success and see the amazing successes of each day.  It has helped me be a more joyful person within myself, therefore a more joyful parent to my children.