Sally Taylor

Five years ago I attended my first SDI conference in Costa Mesa California. It was there that I met Sally Taylor. It was between sessions and I was wandering through the vendors’ tables when I stopped to look at beautiful handmade labyrinths made by Mongolian women.

There was also a brochure on the table, describing Sally’s hermitage in Saintfield, Northern Ireland. What? I was so surprised by this point of connection! Sally and I conversed for no more than 20 minutes about my having relatives in that same village and about my ambivalence towards the country in general due to my experiences there as a teen. It was a memorable conversation and I purchased one of the labyrinths which still sits on my entry table.

Flash forward to this year when the announcement came that the SDI conference was being held in Dublin, Ireland. I didn’t think too much about it at first but it just kept entering my mind. Could I go? Was it even feasible?

Well it turns out that it was! A Celtic Pilgrimage was advertised for after the conference but I knew I needed to make a different pilgrimage - one in which to find peace from previous visits to Ireland. I googled "Sally Taylor" and found her hermitage online - I emailed her and asked if she remembered me - she replied that she did remember our short conversation and that I was the woman who left a piece of her heart in Ireland oh so many years ago. She invited me to stay with her.

Well that did it! I can’t describe the joy of having Sally as my travel guide, spiritual director, and friend on this trip. So I will start with sharing Sally’s gardens. with 20 acres of land Sally has created some of the most beautiful gardens I've ever seen...enjoy!

"Beauty takes us beyond the visible to the height of consciousness, past the ordinary to the mystical, away from the expedient to the endlessly true." Joan Chittister, OSB
p.s. click on the pictures to see the full beauty of these gardens.