Jingleboy Returns

J.B. and I are back in the great state of Oklahoma after our visit to what our family fondly refers to as ' The Motherland', Ireland.  As it turns out, even though several of Danny's ancestors were in fact born and raised in Ireland, they actually came over when the bloody English (surely none of my ancestors!) were running rampant over the Emerald Isle and relieving the natives of their holdings.  Started out as part of the conquering hordes...*sigh*. I so wanted us to be the good guys.
       Here are a few pictures of some of Jingleboy's favorite things about our trip.

Gail.  The three of us roomed together for the two weeks we were in Ireland.  All of us on the tour became fast friends but she was the favorite.  Gail is a lifelong friend of my sister and now a new friend of mine and JB's as well. Good getting to know you roomy.

Guinness. We all took the tour at St. James Gate; I hated the brew but JB loved it dearly. As a matter of fact he had to be dragged out of the bar....again.  The boy has absolutely no self control when it comes to foamy drinks.

Castles.  This one happens to be the Ross Castle in Killarney. Personally, this one kind of gave me the creeps for some reason. We visited lots and lots of them, climbed up and down most of them, looked over the crumbling walls and wondered about the people who lived, fought and died there.

Kissing the Blarney Stone (we all did it).  This trip was a pilgrimage but it was also a fantastic trip through  the immensely colorful history of Ireland, her people and enemies, her holy places, stone walled small farms and gorse covered hillsides.  Good times all around.

New friends!  I am continually amazed at how wonderful it is to spend time with new people, especially new people who love the creation and its Creator.  I hope I never lose the friendship of those twenty people who traveled with us across those green hills and valleys, up and down those windy rocky slopes and across the waves to the Aran Isles.

Glad to be back.

Fine Things on a Cloudy Day

The golden star which sits at the heart of  sweet Hollyhock,
the soft as rabbit fur brush of Mexican Feather Grass as I pass,
two young Gold Fish, side by side, waiting for manna,
a veritable flutter of brown butterflies flirting with Chamomile,

royal purple spikes of Salvia on guard beside the corner post,
a brown and green lizard doing the quick-step across red bricks,
hundreds of  Cliff Swallows weaving their music upon the gray sky,
one fine, black cat who leans against my leg and purrs.

Things this lovely, and they are myriad, always put me in mind
of the poem My Garden, by Thomas Edward Brown which contains
this perfect line:
 
 "....and yet the fool contends that God is not—
    Not God! in gardens! when the eve is cool?"


as if that were the most impossible thing imaginable. I concur.

Sunset

Please, do not tell my the reasons for the colors of  sunset over the prairie, atmosphere and dust particles, light, distance, humidity. Hush now, if ever there was beauty too grand for words this is it.

Birthday Girl: Not 30 yet

Happy Birthday to my Rose of the Morning!

Now that you have a child of your own can
you begin to see how you will hold the image
of him as an infant, a toddler, a child, a youth
and on and on there in your mind forever,
so that when you see him grown tall and
handsome you will still and forever see the
sweet child of two that he was, smiling and
holding up his arms to welcome you home?

Just so, I see that child that you once were
smiling out of  your eyes when I look at you.
Every hurt and sadness you have known
I have felt with you, powerless to help.
Motherhood is full of pain and joy,
anguish and delight, the greatest of all
blessings, life begun again, full of hope
and glorious in the innocence of a child.

Poem: My Daniel

Normal life, different but now normal
I have work, friends, a routine, meals
normal life....sort of....most of the time

except at that precise moment of
awakening in the pale, cool light
of morning when for an instant
I am sick,
overwhelmed with dread

I can never quite name the reason,
the source of my disquiet
as if I have stepped through,
slipped through a portal unseen
to wake up in a different time

that moment, that instant of
dreadful fear and loss is why I put
off going to sleep at night, staying up
puttering around...doing nothing

two times, two lives, realities
that do not mesh, can not mesh
anywhere so I have had to
be here in the green, shining
water flowing, birds singing
children laughing place
without you because ...

except in my dreams where you
come and walk, talk, smile,
hug me and are alive still
in that other, lost reality
that I leave at the first light
of dawn each day as
the birds begin their singing

surely this too will end, will evolve
 into a more kindly awakening
one would hope...over time
to emerge from happy dreams
into happy wakefulness.

Safe and Sound

         
             Ah, the safest place in the world, in the arms of those who gave us life,
who carry us through our fears, real or imagined, who lead us with the lights they themselves
have discovered into paths that will lead us to paths of our own.  Those who, by their actions, reactions, attitudes, wisdom, knowledge and affection, help us to stand, walk, run and fly.

 Lucky little ones to be so richly blessed in this world so full of sorrow.