Three years ago I took a trip to Iona, Scotland and as a part of that trip I got the opportunity to travel by boat to the island of Staffa, an uninhabited island of the Inner Hebrides. The island's name was given to it by the Vikings due to its impressive columnar basalt formations- the name translates to 'staff' or 'pillar island'. These six sided columns are the same that make up the Giant's Causeway in Ireland.
Fun fact: Fingal's Cave on Staffa served as inspiration for Mendelssohn in his Hebrides Overture after visiting the island in 1829.
Although uninhabited by humans, Staffa serves as a nesting site for seabirds in the spring and early summer, including puffins, guillemots, and razorbills.
After arriving at the island and climbing the steep stairs to the top of the cliffs, I was greeted by the enchanting sight of hundreds of puffins hanging out doing their puffin thing at the cliff edges.
Besides being adorable- they are smaller than I expected and so colorful!- the puffins on Staffa also have an lovely way about them.
Because the island has no land predators, the puffins act surprisingly unafraid and curious toward their daily human visitors. I was able to sit near the edge and have the puffins wander around me- several came closer than most wild birds will and seemed to look me in the face- as if they were the tourists looking at ME rather than the other way around.
It made me think a bit about this particular intriguing trait of puffins and how their lack of ingrained fear on the island helps foster their curiosity.
About how, for many of us, fear can dampen and snuff out this important aspect of life. Without it, the mind is more open and free to explore the world around us in a way that is open and curious and without judgement.
The puffins were cautious- they weren't sitting in my lap or hanging out on my shoulder- but they approached with careful curiosity to see what I was all about.
How often do we allow ourselves to do that? To approach something with pure curiosity without fear or judgement? I think as adult humans, we lose a lot of the way that we may have done this as children.
The world is what it is and I know there are real dangers and that our fear is often justified, but what if we could make like a puffin and retain healthy caution, while at the same time opening up more to curiosity.
Energetically caution feels different to me than fear- caution feels like a yellow light, fear feels like a red light. Red lights stop us completely, while yellow lights ask us to be careful and slow down.
In slowing down and looking more carefully, we can often see things we might not otherwise.
So today I will try to tilt my head and look at something in a new way- like a puffin. :)
Additional Notes:
In looking up some facts about Staffa for this post, I came across this post from the Scotland National Trust. It seems that in May of 2019, which was right before I visited, the first official count of the puffins was conducted on Staffa as a way to monitor the health of the bird populations in the face of climate change. The official count confirmed 637 occupied puffin burrows.
I traveled to Iona as part of a pilgrimage led by Waymarkers. Led by my friend Mary DeJong, these rewinding retreats and pilgrimages help reconnect people with the sacred within themselves and the natural world. I have participated in the shorter seasonal offerings as well as the pilgrimage to Iona and I highly recommend Waymarkers for anyone looking to connect more deeply to the sacred natural world.
For more info on Staffa and it's puffins, this article by the National Trust for Scotland is a good one!
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I am participating in Birdtober! There are a few Birdtober art challenges happening this month- I am participating in the one hosted by Kayla Fisk Birds. I’m really happy I stumbled on this bird art challenge. I love all the other October challenges, but it always comes back to birds for me. :) Especially since I have another show scheduled at Seward Park Audubon in January!
This week as I sat with my coffee, I had a revelation.
This is a big word and one might find the revelation that I had small and rather obvious, but sometimes a concept that you already know can hit differently one day and become...a revelation.
