The Daily School Bus: it rolls by Grotto Iona

As I sit my car on my coffee break, blogging.

Text added at 5:38 PM. The Squarespace nightmare continues.

I stop at the grotto while drinking coffee

I am on my coffee break and I just stopped at Grotto Iona to ponder. To any newcomers, this is the Mahoney family cemetery (Abby, Tim and many more). They leave it open to the public and have designated it as "A Place of Prayer."

I pedal to Grotto Iona – the place of prayer

I am in the Grotto, built by the late Paul Mahoney as a place to honor and pray for his deceased wife Iona, buried far away. This is the grave of his granddaughter, Rebekah Louise, whose ashes were buried here by her dad Tim Mahoney on Father's Day, June 15, 2012, in a memorial ceremony I was privileged to witness and document. Shortly after I ate breakfast this morning, I climbed onto my bicycle and pedaled down here, the first leg of what by the time I return home will be close to a 15 mile ride. Usually in summer, I take a morning walk and then try to work in a bike ride in the early night. Afterward, I attempt to settle down to get at least two or three hours work in before I go to bed - usually about 1:00 AM, sometimes 2:00, sometimes midnight, sometimes not till three or four in the morning, if even by then. But tonight, I can't afford to break away from my work. I just have to sit at my computer with Jim and stick to it. This will take the weekend and Monday too. I love the work I do, but sometimes I feel crushed by it; crushed also by the relentless torments and sorrows of life. Paul also built this Grotto as a place of prayer where anyone who feels like it can stop and lay his burden down. I am not a religious man. I do not know what waits beyond his grave, but I think I will post this and then turn off my phone, sit quietly in the peace of this grotto for a few minutes, let my mind retreat as deep into itself as it can go and then I will pedal home and do what I must do. And I will enjoy it.