SCOTLAND!

6th stop: Glasgow, Edinburgh Scotland- Wewlyn Garden City (London), England


About 30 min plane ride from Dublin to Glasgow, the plane doesn’t even seem to have ascended before you start descending again. It’s just that close to each other, I mean not just the distance, but the nature, the sheeps, and the endless rolling hills makes me conclude that when the world was once one mass, Ireland was connected to Scotland. You will notice right away that definitely the capacity to understand the English language is miles more difficult. Scotish people at times seem to have something stuck in their throat that they just can’t seem to shallow when they speak English. I really had to make an effort to listen to what they said (sometimes). Everything is like a wee bit, a wee more, a wee bowl...

with Anne's FAM

It was so funny because me and my friend speak the same language, but there were so many times she would need me to repeat myself. We arrived in Glasgow her hometown, as we both went to Ireland together for the Mariapolis, and we were exhausted. I made some PANCAKES, which I was craving and literally we spent the whole morning just relaxing. Whenever you travel, there needs to be at least the first day where you just rest your body. Traveling gets so TIRING.

Well it wasn’ t long before we both headed to London or Wewlyn Garden City the next day from Scotland on an 8 hour mini-bus ride. We were off to attend “reGENerate,” a weekend with young people from all over UK. I was so hyped to go since many of the people I knew were gonna be there, and I just needed some “regeneration.” The theme was “Rooted or Uprooted” and the first session we had to divide into small groups to come up with a quote, and creative expression of the theme. Our group took a turn on the word root, and used “route” instead. We discovered this quote...

ohh YEAH

“A name is what you seek, an address is where it is, and a route is how to get there.” (Jon Postel)

from all over Italy, Scotland, Brazil, and yeah England

If you think about it, a root of a tree is similar to a route of a journey, it can diverge connect, travel to other roots or paths. We interpreted this quote as a name is what you seek such as something, or a concept such as happiness, love, joy... an address is where we can find these things, and a route is the mysterious way to find it. I thought to myself, on this journey around Europe, the name is LOVE that I seek, the address is in each person I meet in each moment of each day, and the route is always a surprise each day. Also everyone in my group of 4 happened to be people I had met even before going to regenerate, and how we ended up being in the same place is not a coincidence because most of us seek something similar, the places may be similar or the same and our routes may seem to intertwine and cross eachothers’ ways. Each group took different spins on this theme...
“For a tree to become tall it must grow tough roots among rocks” (Nietzsche) 
“That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you may be rooted and grounded in love, may know the love of Christ.”

all of us

but where it originated from is that whether we are rooted in our faith, or our belief in something greater, which is directly connected to being rooted in loving our neighbour-brother-sister. The more we love our brothers and sisters, the more we love God our Father, these are two inseparable commandments. So like the Mariapolis, we all tried to Live this, Practice this, and make this the tattoo of every action towards the Other.

The next day was just incredible because we were fortunate to listen to a life experience of a couple whose crosses were carried with such faith and love. She was diagnosed with lung and heart issues that the doctors just couldn’t seem to cure, and he married her despite all the odds of her health. Not much later after their marriage, she was only relying on a respirator, and physiotherapy to keep her feeble body alive as she desperately waited for a proper diagnosis. Later she discovered she needed a lung and heart transplant, and she recalled 9 young people having died just waiting for their transplant. She went through days where she wanted to just give up and one day she told the nurses she had enough. She wanted an end to all the excruciating pain she was going through every second of every breath she took. But on that day something in her changed, she wanted to believe, and she wanted to give herself another chance. And her prayer was answered, she received a call to have a heart and lung transplant, but even through this operation her chances were slim, but she held on to a flame of hope. Before going to the hospital, she literally gave away everything she owned, and said her goodbyes to each and every loved one because she was prepared that her chances of surviving weren’t high. But now she is breathing and surviving on a respiration level of 1/4th of an average person. Through it all, she gave herself to everyone whenever they visited her. She had a love for each person, and even ran a small lottery for the other hospital patients.

Maria and John- the testimony of true love

She is a testimony of LOVING in the midst of suffering, on the brink of dying, and when all odds were against her. This wasn’t just her story, but her husband also shared how much he struggled, and how much he loved and supported her through the most difficult times. At the end, he sang a song for her that says, “Maria (her name), you are a miracle, a walking, talking miracle.” Every time he looked at her, there was this smile that expressed his unconditional love after 21 years of marriage. If you don’t call that love, what is?

Love that surpasses all limits, overcomes all barriers, embraces all suffering, and sacrifices all of self. We will only discover real love when we have lost all, given all, and sacrificed all. Only then, if we have an empty heart and mind, with the door wide open that we can actually discover and experience what LOVE is. But it only requires our YES, a leap of faith to receive this love, to open ourselves, to makes ourselves feel vulnerable, to lose everything of ourself. This is what we were created to experience, to be LOVED and to LOVE. But we will never know how to love, if we don’t have love, if we don’t believe in LOVE. But thank God Maria did, she is one of the oldest woman surviving with a heart and lung transplant in the world.

at the Focolare in Glasgow

with Anne's friends Claire and Rachel

I went to visit a Sikh temple!