A little aside

I have a wonderful knack of getting hopelessly lost. On my journey to the remote Aberdeenshire countryside last week, I was relying heavily on my satellite navigation, one of my latest gadgets. At one point, it took me on an unexpected detour. It was then that I realised how reliant I was on the instructions of Darth Vadar, whose voice is on my Tom Tom. He could have taken me wherever he wanted and I would have been at his mercy, so little instinct have I in a directional sense.

When I finally arrived after almost 4 hours driving, Darth Vadar said: "Your journey to the dark side is complete". He had in fact steered me very accurately to my destination. So, was this the dark side? What exactly was in store for me? Pondering these questions earlier in the month had almost caused me to cancel the retreat. Thankfully, I was encouraged by a wise woman not to do that and thus became a part of something really special. Something invigorating, something out of this world that I was meant to experience. My "journey to the dark side" was by no means complete. It had only just begun and, I'm sure, will take a long time to be fully realised. There is another voice I have to rely on, another guide I have to follow. That, too will take courage and much wise counsel but I'm up for it.