Wells … Since the planning phases of this grand adventure I have had this leaning toward finding sacred wells in Ireland. Here on the Aran Islands two weeks into my trip it has all come full circle and I can now put into words this leaning or drawing me in has been about.
The Holy Well (An Tobar Bheannaithe) in Celtic mythology is sacred because it is the entrance into the womb of Mother Earth, a feminine symbol. Wells are seen as healing, life-giving sources that reconnect us with the earth, the sun, the seasons, and our very own life rhythm ~ "The Unforced Rhythms of Grace.” (Peterson, The Message, Words of Jesus)
Reminiscent of the Samaritan Woman at the well, I have found Jesus greeting me with life giving water each time I made my rounds (the ancient tradition of walking and praying around the well 7 times) and touched the healing waters that come from the nourishing earth that I often take little time to notice in everyday rhythm. The Samaritan Woman needed an encounter that would interrupt the irresistible current of daily living- habits and rituals that go unnoticed day after day until the pattern is so consistent that it is no longer life giving. Jesus often does such radical intervention in our lives, calling us out of stumbling through and into wide eyed awakening where we embrace those unforced rhythms of grace that become life giving water from a well that needs no bucket and flows without beginning or end.
"Come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace …"
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