May the Road Rise up to Meet You (Part 3)
It's an odd twist of events when you travel as the companion to your child's family. After so many years of planning summer vacations and family reunions and being the orchestrator of every detail from food prep to packing, I was now almost feeling a bit awkward in my every wish and whim being met. "You wanna see a ruin? Here's a ruin." You'd like some organic produce from the grocery store. Let's go shopping. You've always wanted to visit an ancient cathedral? No problem." I highly recommend having lots of amazing children and those children marrying amazing people and they in turn have their own amazing children. It's a most lovely way to grow older and in two days I'd be turning sixty one.
We have now checked off most everything that I'd imagined doing in Ireland; except to kiss the famous Blarney Stone. We weaved our way down the streets back to the car (walking on the left side of course). Blarney Castle would be the last big adventure of my trip here.
Did I see the Blarney Stone? Yes. Yes I did. Did I lie down on my back with the help of a tour guide and slide backwards until I was seeing upside down in order to kiss said stone? No. No I did not. What I wanted to do was get back down those narrow stone steps and kiss the ground. Vertigo and I have a history together and just the thought of being even slightly upside-down was making me light-headed.
I walk back down the stone spiral staircase contemplating the lives of the families that lived in this massive stone fortress and those families that lived in the outlying countryside and what was the happiness and fulfillment of each. Personally, I would choose a little thatched-roof cottage with a cow, a sheep and some chickens over the castle. People are born into their families/countries/circumstances. Ultimately I believe that throughout all of history people fall in love, make families; parents love their children, children love their parents. They all have successes and failures, heart-breaks and conquests; made small mistakes and epic failures. Some have committed horrific acts or had horror visited upon them. Survival of the fittest. Conquering of the weakest. But I truly believe that mostly people have tried their best.
In this breathtaking island of every shade of green imaginable, I witness in the people the same things I do here at home. Friendliness, communities rallying around their youth sports teams, families taking their children on outings to the beach or trips to the ice-cream shop. The occasional homeless person no one is quite certain is the situation that finds them sleeping on a city sidewalk while people stroll past. Lovers walk hand-in-hand with a gleam in their eyes; everything to look forward to, the world not quite closing in on their naivete'. The story is the same on the streets of Cork as it was on the dirt paths of the Blarney Castle centuries ago.
Near our Airbnb was a most beautiful nature walk along a river. "Can we take a few family photos here guys? After all it's my birthday and that's what I'd love most." Gotta milk it for everything.
May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind be always at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face ;the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.
May God be with you and bless you; May you see your children’s children. May you be poor in misfortune, rich in blessings. May you know nothing but happiness from this day forward.
May the road rise to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the warm rays of sun fall upon your home, and may the hand of a friend always be near.
May green be the grass you walk on, May blue be the skies above you, May pure be the joys that surround you, May true be the hearts that love you. - Author unknown
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