About a year ago my co-pastor and her wife traveled to Scotland at the same time I was in Hawaii. I love Hawaii and all, but their pictures of Scotland spoke to me in ways I could not explain. Right then and there, looking across the coast of Maui, I began planning a trip to Scotland. Jonathan and I would fly into Inverness, drive to the Isle of Skye, then return to hike the Highlands around Loch Ness (and no, we did not see her.)

I just got home from one of the best trips I have ever taken. Jonathan and I were at the TED Summit in Edinburgh in the summer of 2019, a truly epic time of great stimulation. This trip was equally wonderful. Skye was magical. I am one-quarter Scottish (and 99 percent British Isles) and between 1715 and 1760 the harbor at Portree was the last place many last stood on Scottish soil before coming to the American Colonies. That first mass wave of immigrants was about the time many of my ancestors arrived. To be back on that land, carrying the DNA of those determined souls, was a reminder of just how attached we are to those who came before, and those who will come long after we have departed.

I felt like I was home again. I cannot explain the feeling, other than to acknowledge what is already known, that ancient DNA lives within each of us, waiting to be awakened by the sights and smells of home.

Maybe it was being there with my son – our first hiking trip in a couple of decades. We hiked six of the seven days we were in Scotland. We took time off to visit three castles and two distilleries, as well as wander the streets of Inverness.

I always wanted to take an epic trip with each of my three children, but after I transitioned, I questioned if it ever would happen. When Kristie and Mara graced social media with their pictures from Scotland, I knew it was time for the trip with my son that I had always envisioned. Years ago, when he was visiting a friend in Northern Ireland, Jonathan traveled to the Isle of Skye and called me from the top of a mountain. This was before cell phones could take pictures, and he described the most beautiful view he was taking in. Right then I knew that someday he would return, and I would be with him.

Life today is lived from one busy, complicated moment to the next, virtually nonstop. This trip was a chance to put life in the context of an ancient culture that represents most of my DNA, and take in the truth that in our brief time on this planet, we change it irrevocably.

The was a wonderful trip, everything I hoped it would be. Life is good, and if we are patient and persistent, it is also redemptive.

And so it goes.