The High Street in Fort William, Scotland

I’m back with the manuscript, moving into the shaping and editing phase. It’s early in that stage, but this is where the book starts becoming what it’s meant to be.

As I work through these pages, certain moments rise up and demand attention. This is one of them: a flashback that sits near the heart of the book. I wanted to share it with you. I hope you enjoy this small glimpse into the book.

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Navigating this painful transition became more difficult when I could barely think of Scotland without wanting to cry.  I remembered my experience with Larry MacGregor back in 2021. Scotland had just reopened to visitors after the long lockdown, and I found myself on a nearly empty plane to Edinburgh with only three other passengers—a surreal reminder of how the pandemic had changed everything. Many were concerned about safety, but I couldn't stay away.

I had met Lawrie MacGregor on the high street in Fort William. "Lass, are you lost?" he'd asked. “Not exactly”, I told him—I was just trying to decide where to eat dinner. After sharing some dining suggestions, we began talking about where I was from and why I was there. I explained that while my ancestry wasn't Scottish in this life, my heart called me there with an intensity I couldn't explain.

I expressed my heart's longing and how difficult it was when I was away—how I wished I could bottle up the smells of the forest, the beach, the moist earth.

Both of us were masked, but we connected through our eyes, fully present with each other. He spoke of missing Oban and the sea, and what had brought him to Fort William. Then he reminded me of something I had forgotten to practice during the pandemic—or rather, something I hadn't exactly forgotten but had avoided because it seemed too painful at the time. Painful because I couldn’t access my spiritual home.

“Pay attention, Lisa. Be here, and yes, you can bottle it. Take it all in. Go there in your mind as much as you can and you will feel it in your heart until you can come back again."

I have always held this experience as sacred, but during this excruciatingly painful time, I could not practice it or replicate it as I had done countless times before. Now my friends in both Scotland and America were encouraging me to return once again—to reclaim my spiritual home for myself. 

They understood that some healing can only happen in certain places, and that Scotland held something essential for my recovery.

This book is growing in ways that surprise me — I’ll bring you along as it does.