My Eilean

By Ruiseart Murray

My eilean!
She is - the years of my purest innocence, my springtime, my learning and my teaching, of my childish abandon, of uncounted adventures in enchanted playgrounds; the warming sunrise to the I I am today.

My eilean!
She is - the years of my coming of age, of loves mightier than her pinnacles and pleated cliffs, of a tender heart’s first sting with tears saltier than the mist from the bay, of eternal summers and endless winters, of laughter louder than the roaring midnight winds, of unbounding stillness, of my early toils; my first step on journey's distant horizon.

My eilean!
She is - my half-century, beckoning homewards stronger than ever, ever patient for me ever steadfast, she welcomes you home with gentle arms yet strong and enveloping, in that moment the world and all its haste and bustle ceases, in an instant she nourishes your soul far beyond any feast; leaving her again is tempered only by the grateful replenishing of what you carry with you, and by what little more you leave behind.

My eilean!
She is - the years of my future, my contentment, my life’s full accounting, my burnished auburn heather.
I will return and be truly whole once more. To be cosseted in her people’s panaceaic warmth as soothing to the soul as any of her mighty vistas. To again stand a moment in her resounding silences and roaring winds, her complete majesty; the glorious sunset of the I I always was.

My An Taobh Sear, my Eilean, my Alba.

Kilt Rock and Mealt Falls, Portree, Skye

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