Jim Cotter, Aberdaron and Mortality



Jim Cotter's grave in the churchyard of St.Maelrhy's Church, just a mile or so south of Aberdaron. It names him as Priest and Wordsmith  - a description that also fits the poet R.S.Thomas, who, like Jim, was vicar of these parishes.

At Aberdaron, St. Hywyn's Church,  sits at the end of North Wales' Llyn Peninsular. The jumping off point for pilgrims on their way Bardsey Island  - Ynys Enlli  -  The burial place of 20,000 saints.

In a guide book for the church "Sauntering Around St.Hywyn's : a brief guide to our church",  aware of his own mortality, Jim had written:
 
If you think of a lifetime as a pilgrimage, 
say half a mile a year down the Llyn Peninsular, 
when you reach Aberdaron
you will be near the end of your life. 

The peninsular narrows, the sea (the eternal?)
gets closer and closer on both sides. 
Eventually it ends at a point. 
It is yet another "eye of the needle". 

You can no longer return. 
You are slimmed down to get through that eye. 
Think, though, of how much can be stored on a microchip
invisible to the naked eye. 

And the day comes to trust 
ourselves to that point, and 
launch into the beyond from the tip of the peninsular.
Pilgrim soul, fare forth. Fare well.
 
Thomas wrote of Ynys Enlli :
 
There is an island
there is no going to
but in a small boat 
the way the saints went,


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