“the words ran away from me.”
-edna o’brien
—
portstewart, county londonderry, ireland
day 1
room 1
visited a pub
in a little village
filled with
friendly people
from near and far
then
slept above it
in a tiny room
while beautiful irish music
kept on
playing below
dancing me into sweet dreams.
—
“i’m not afraid of chaos and i’m happy talking to strangers.
i really love not knowing where I’m going.”
-fiona shaw
met a friendly irishman
in line
at the first airport
with an accent
who was
going my way
we had
many hours
of
travel adventure
ahead of us
through
flight delays
canceled flights
missed connections
route changes
airline changes
seat changes
itinerary changes
re-ticketing
running to gates
taking shuttles
sitting on the tarmack
trying to find lost luggage
sharing
food
and
beers
and
stories
and
laughs
and
names of
places to visit
each
making our way
to the magic land of
ireland
for our own reasons
and
what a lucky beginning
to this wonderful adventure.
—
“luck is believing you’re lucky.”
– tennessee williams
(not us, but what we imagined we looked like)
back in my advertising days
we decided to get active
and created
an after-work
roller blading group
we did this
each wednesday
for 6 years
with a pretty loyal core of people
and noticed that
we never got better
never lost an ounce of weight
never got faster
but we did
meet our local police
see things from street level
like we had never seen them before
scream when going down big hills
frequently get passed
by speed skating groups in matching outfits
sweat a lot
listen to outdoor concerts in the park
plug in a blender outside
for margarita night
laugh endlessly
cross paths with many interesting people
discover places that we didn’t know existed
blade into taverns for refreshments
get breathless
survive many scrapes bruises and sprains
and
share such a wonderful adventure.
(not us either, but more what we really looked like)
—
“there is more to life than increasing its speed.”
~mohandas k. gandhi
—
image credits: google images
unlocked the door
with the secret key
climbed way up high
into the secret tower
with
the kinders
up and up and up
the
spiral staircase
with
stone walls
tiny windows
brave hearts
and
a wondrous view from the top.
—
“a well-ordered life is like climbing a tower;
the view halfway up is better than the view from the base,
and it steadily becomes finer as the horizon expands.”
-william lyon phelps
the kinder team in action on the big dig,
in search of dinosaur bones.
some do the labor,
some supervise.
their dino artifacts go on display
for all to enjoy
in the playground museum.
—
the dinosaur’s eloquent lesson is that if some bigness is good,
an overabundance of bigness is not necessarily better.
– eric johnston
we went outside
on a class hike
touched stuff
picked up things
fell down
rolled
ran
played in the water
saw some pretty little stuff
and saw some big and beautiful stuff
and tried to figure out
how to get way up there
then we found this
and
think it was a message
left for us
and decided it was true
and our adventure
was even better.
—-
land is the secure ground of home, the sea is like life,
the outside, the unknown.
– stephen gardiner