I’m visiting the town of my birth just now. Stirling. I lived here until I went to university when I was 18, then came back to do my first four years of junior doctor training.
I still have family here and can trace back on my dad’s side of the family in Stirling to the early 1700s.
This photo shows the castle, still one of Scotland’s most beautiful castles in my opinion! And it shows the edge of Stirling Bridge on the right. You can also see the River Forth in the foreground. The Forth has an astonishing number of loops and bends as it makes its way to the North Sea from here.
Stirling has a nickname of “The Gateway to the Highlands” and Stirling Bridge was the only way to get from the Highlands to the Lowlands for many years, giving the bridge a significance immensely greater than its rather humble size.
Stirling also sits midway between Glasgow on the West coast and Edinburgh on the East coast in the narrowest part of Scotland.
Culturally it was a market town and a meeting point drawing peoples of different traditions from all four points of the compass.
I find myself wondering again how much the physical, cultural and historical features and flows created the person I am today.
Family stories, Scotland’s stories, Stirling’s stories all flow together to create the roots and origins of my personal narrative.
Place is more than landscape, more than buildings, more than we can see with our eyes, and the fuller understanding of place reveals not only our origins and our history, but shines a light on who we have become.
Do you have similar thoughts about the place of your origin? Or about the place where you live now?
Heroes Not Zombies 
Stirling was the site of the last annual congress of the Veterinary Homeopaths (and we were so happy to have you join us). We didn´t know then that it would be the last such meeting for a long time due to Covid-19. During the challenging time since then, I have thought back on the Summer of 2019 and that wonderful weekend in Stirling.