Newsletter Summer 2024

Claire, Coordinator at The Coach House, writes:

In December last year the Coach House embarked on a period of sabbatical and intentioned discernment. The house remained closed well beyond the end of winter; its usual spring clean and re-opening purposefully delayed. And yet, though seemingly silent and fallow, the ground was being attended to in stillness and patient waiting. 

The quiet darkness gave us the time we needed to gather in and sift the seeds from the years of faithful toil and planting that went before. And over these months we have sensed, and begin now to see, new growth emerging amongst what was already established. For so it is that nothing is ever wasted, and all is honoured and valued.

n February, Claire took the opportunity to walk the French portion of the Camino de Santiago with two volunteers from the Coach House. She began in the French Pyrenées at Saint-Jean-Pied-de -Port. Unfortunately, just over halfway through, she had to stop, in León, Spain, due to a couple of injuries and a decisive bout of gastric flu! Her companions completed the entire journey. In March and early April, some very generous donations - including one from the Inverness Quaker Meeting, we were able to have ground cleared in the paddock at the back of the retreat house, and a base installed there for a new garden room. Another huge - and anonymous - donation enabled us to purchase this new garden room.

A heartfelt thank you to everyone one who made this project possible! In the course of the work, we cleared away a lot of bramble, docks, nettles, hogweed and thistles which had dominated two sides of the labyrinth, and so have finally been able to use Alastair Simmons' wonderful garden design to develop and enhance the space. .

In April a group of amazing volunteers came to spring-clean and/or do some gardening. Some enjoyed it so much that they returned in May, when they were joined by another volunteer. As a result, the three rockeries are now clear and the garden furniture has been sanded down and re-coated in wood preservative. 

Our friends at Highland Mindfulness came twice to meditate and do 'mindfulness in action'. Some planted trees, shrubs, and bushes, scattered wildflower seeds, weeded, mowed the lawns and labyrinth, while others helped with household chores. They are returning in July to paint the new garden room!!

Alongside these returning signs of life has been the slow growth of a new core team, held and enabled in this work by a network of wonderfully loyal volunteers. In recent months (with the faithful support of Ruth - our previous Coordinator - and the commitment of an evolving Board of Trustees ) Claire as Coordinator has been joined by Nancy (our new part-time Administrator) and Lynn (our full-time Assistant Coordinator). Attending to the particularity of their own deep desires and the possibilities being offered, each of them feels drawn to be here; committed to a direction of travel that is both trustworthy and yet to be discovered.

We are now fully back 'in business' and look forward to welcoming you all as and when that is possible for you. Many of our summer retreats have a few spaces still available. Do please get in touch to see how we can best offer 'space for you to come home to yourself'.

Lynn, Assistant Co-ordinator writes:

My training in spiritual direction came about in response to my own deepening faith journey and a desire to walk with others also on the way; a desire that grew naturally alongside my work as a specialist nurse in palliative care. I first came to The Coach House on retreat in 2019, and in 2021 worked alongside Claire for the first time. As a member of the dispersed team of committed volunteers, I made the return journey many times; accompanying others and contributing to the rhythm of hearth and home which The Coach House offers with such generosity.

Since retiring in January 2022 I have been on a long, slow discernment as to where I might best be planted and what I could offer there. Running beneath my own rhythms of silence and prayer, compassionate presence, listening deeply to others, and nurturing my own spiritual growth and formation lies a deep desire to tend to the holy and in the words of Thomas Merton, to listen in ways that help others recognise and move towards wherever it is that God is leading them. And by this same way, I have journeyed here to take up the work of Assistant Coordinator alongside Claire and Nancy.

Nancy, Administrative Assistant

I have come to the Coach House from a lifetime of contemplation and spiritual seeking. After careers in psychotherapy and academia (teaching philosophy), I met Lynn in 2022 when she came to discern at a therapeutic community in Kent where I was living and working. Rather than her joining the community there, I ended up coming north to join the Coach House team!/p>

I’m hoping to put diverse skills into service welcoming retreatants here. My paid role is to keep administrative order (so that Ruth can retire again!), and during retreats I often volunteer in the kitchen. You can find me every weekday morning from after meditation to 11 am, or contact me at: office@coachhousekilmuir.org.

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