Connections

"If women remember that once upon a time we sang with the tongues of seals and flew with the wings of swans, that we forged our own paths through the dark forest while creating a community of it's inhabitants, then we will rise up rooted, like trees." - Sharon Blackie

I read this spring that the things that were most important to you as a child are the things that are your core beliefs. I immediately thought of the ocean I ran in, the trees I climbed, and the grandparents who filled me.

Ancestors, Trees, Ocean.

In Ireland we learned that they say Sky, Earth, Water and it felt like a connection I've never felt before. 

And I got to bathe with seaweed.

We stood in an ancient Hawthorne grove in a ring fort. I touched a 500 year old Hawthorne and we sang to her. Now I sing it in my head as I pass the many Hawthorne's in our neighborhood.

"Red juicy berries and sweet white flowers,

red juicy berries and sweet white flowers.

Thorns that protect and connect to your power,

thorns that protect and connect to your power.

How can you teach me of softness and strength, of how to relate with love, with love.

How can you teach me of softness and strength, of how to relate with love, with love."

- Sage

So many portals we traveled to. Meeting ancestors all along the way. 

In a cemetery where some of the graves face west or Tír na nóg (Land of Youth) and the other half face east (the eastern church) overlooking the sea.

In another where in the ruin of a church an older stone from another time is in the window casing. A Sheela na Gig. And ancient visual of the Land and Goddess. Fertility and ancestors.

Truly there are not words for these connections and all I saw and experienced.

Reentering

Slieve Aughty Center

 Here I am. In the desert. But in someways my mind has not come back from Ireland. Mind? Maybe heart would be a better description. I've been using my mind as I get school plans ready, grocery shop and make dinner (no small feat after having personal chefs), and start back into work. Yesterday I spent about half the day at this computer creating a class and a presentation to go with it! 

Reentry. It's an interesting word.

Our third night on our herbal tour was the full moon. After a full day in a remnant of an ancient forest we had eaten and danced the night away at a pub. When we pulled up to our lodgings after dark (sunset was close to 10pm) and so tired we were greeted with this view. We had seen peeks of it along the drive but this. This was fantastic and another notch on a magical day.

Glengarriff, Co. Cork

This was my first experience on a "tour" but I don't think this was anything like what most would experience. A bus full of like minded people, a bus driver in Hawaiian shirts, guides who were more like family by the end, and experiences like no other. We did not go places other tour busses were parked, we went some placed maybe a tour bus should not have parked! We saw more trees than people. We bush peed more than we used public toilets. And may I add what an invigorating experience it is to pee in a nettle patch! Don't worry, no stings.

Burren National Park

I made connections I will never forget. Connections to the land, ancestors, myself, Fern, plants, trees, and new friends. Those connections were unlike any I think I've made before. During our opening circle we each had an opportunity to say our intentions for this trip out loud. Mine were to find peace and connection. Some of the places we stood held more peace than I even thought existed. A lot of friends have joked since I got back that they didn't know if I would come home...yea...

Wild thyme and orchids on the Burren

Each day during my morning time with myself I have been letting something from the trip come back to my mind. There is usually some meaning about it, however small. And there is always something. This morning it was these small shells, Common Limpet. They are in my Irish Seashore field guide under, "Snails, Mussels, and their Relatives" and it says they are characteristic of Irish rocky shores. I brought a couple old washed up ones home. These make me think of how at home I felt on that shore, the same at homeness I actually feel on my Grandma's beach. A place most sacred and special to me. At the time it felt surprising and exciting. I felt alive in a way I haven't. It made me miss home (San Diego) and feel at home all at the same time. It made me think if ancestors who maybe felt that way as they stood in places in the United States. A connection even though it was not home. 

This has been a good daily practice for me. A way to feel and sit while also reentering my life here. No lie it has not been all rosy. I have had some hard conversations with myself and have felt melancholy too. 

Leili just came in and said, "if you got half way to Ireland (Dan is on the east coast) I think you would just go and then tell us after you got there"! Ha Ha!

So here I am. Reentering. 💛

Feeling the Change

Beach near Lahinch Co. Clare, Ireland

 

This morning I put on a sweater for my walk. I felt it the other morning...Friday I believe. The change. Which was funny because just the day before Ashley English had written about the "Dog Days of Summer" ending on August 11th. She is thousands of miles away from where I live, and often the high Sierra desert is its own strange thing. But here we are like a switch was flipped.

I mentioned it to a friend, and her reply was, "oh there is plenty of warm weather to come still". That is true but not what I was saying. Of course this slide down really started on the Summer Solstice when the days cease growing longer and pause before slowly changing. But this feels different. School in our town started today. Not us, but for the last year.

I have a senior and an 8th grader, one in the last year of "prescribed" learning, one who has chosen public school for high school (here in Nevada its all or no high school, no switching between home and public).

So what did I do this summer? Gosh it flew by. I was so busy with new families and work at the beginning and then I left everything and spent nearly the whole month of July in Ireland. I still can not quite believe it. It was wonderful. Maybe I'll post about it. Since coming home there has been lots of catching up, lake trips, walks, and wanderings. No lie, the reentry has had some bumps. But it's been good too.