10 hours on a flight with Connor was horrific. The child cannot be contained in a house, let along a plane. At about hour 3 everything broke in to pieces; he wanted to terrorize the plane and I couldn’t keep him content. If it wasn’t for the incredible patience and kindness of the stewies (stewardesses) of Air Lingus, we both would have been bawling for the remainder of the flight. To keep my kid happy, he ended up walking the aisels of the plane for a number of hours; I can honestly say Connor Joe walked across the Atlantic. I got zero sleep… a reciepe for exhaustion. When we arrived in Dublin a sense of surrealism washed over me, giving me a solid second wind. I had arrived home with my baby.
Connors family here is a collection of incredible people. The Irish people in whole are frickin awesome, kind beyond what any American is used to. Immediately Connor bonded with his Grandpa, his cousin Katie, Auntie Mary, and Grannie (Oona). Their home is beautiful, Grandpa built it himself 10 years ago… more room than we know what to do with. His home is situated on top of a hilly bluff above Killarney town that over looks Killarney State Park and the lakes within it. The landscape is something out of a dream, filled with the cliché sheep and rolling hills, punctuated with delicate wildflowers and farm homes. Killarney is about a five minute drive from the house, so we are far away enough to feel country but close to all that is needed.
behind the house...
view from the front of the house...
We haven’t done too much yet, aside a few visits in to town. The jet lag was major, and it has been rainy (SURPRISE) over the weekend. I did however have an opportunity to take a walk p the road towards a cemetery, mixed with the dead of recent times as well as ancient. On the grounds is a ruin of an abbey as well as some other buildings from the early middle ages: this is what I came here for. As I climbed my way through the jagged headstones I reached the abbey ruins, which made the hair on my arms stand up. The energy of something so ancient, so holy was invigorating as well as somber. I traced my fingers along the hand carved detail, like a wide eyed kid at Christmas… and came along the remains of something incredible. It was a carving of what appeared to be an angel, Jesus and some other figure… halos around their heads, smiles on their faces. At the moment of amazment, the clouds opened above me and began to rain. I’ve talked about this trip being a cleansing for me, and at that moment it was if Mother Earth chose to baptise me in that rain. Don’t get me wrong, it was freezing and WET- and this rain comes in from every direction, rightways, leftways, down and up. I scooted up to the corner of the abbey walls to steer clear of the rain as much as possible and as soon as it let up I hurried my ass back to the house. Ahhh…. This is what I came here for…. And I promise these entries will be more frequent.
the abbey
amazing...
god lookin' down...
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