I have been told that gort means garden in Gaelic. Which is truly apropos especially with the place I'm staying at. I'm couchsurfing w/ Trevor and my stay here has been one of peace, harmony, introspection and awareness. Trevor is a true English gentleman...housing and feeding me...being a tour guide and a good friend. What astounds me still is how the trip has landed me in the most unexpected places w/ the most random individuals. I still ponder the what ifs...and if I hadn't stayed here in Gort...the Garden of Ireland...my trip would have been vastly different...neither good nor bad...just different...
I wake up to birds singing. Sunlight pours through the huge windows in the kitchen. The wood burning stove heats the room downstairs, the water pipes and the rooms upstairs. There are three wonderful dogs: Tess, Macha and Siana. There is an abundance of Vegan food...a great music collection consisting of Tom Waits, Laurie Anderson, Siouxsie and The Banshees, Blondie, Julie Feeney, Johnny Cash, Alifarka Toure, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Bach and Beethoven and of course....Leonard Cohen....and there's more!
My room overlooks the front yard and the neighboring field. I spent St. Patrick's Day napping in my room, the sunshine cascading through...warming my toes and bare legs (it's been really cold and rainy here in Ireland!)...my feet properly propped up on the windowsill and I couldn't be happier....no phone...no TV....just the cacophony of birds, the stillness of the Irish countryside and the swaying array of different trees that dance with the wind: ash, hazelnut, willow.....
When I left the big cities of Ireland, my trip became better. Less noisy and busy...which I'm truly grateful for because I think that's why I came...to get away............
I am anxious.... in a way...I miss home..my friends...and of course...The Vortex...but I think I found the heart of Ireland...underneath it's darker display which I experienced in the beginning....it is in the fields and trees...the warmness felt in the kitchen of a loving home...the land tilled for flowers and vegetables...
I can't explain it. The dichotomy of this place and its people. My trip consisting of dualities and ups..and downs...the magic and the suffering...a field full of trees and green.......and beyond that...another field sits...a graveyard of stumps and brown...the land owned by the Forestry where trees are planted specifically to be cut down...a horrible and ugly sight to be seen... but it is happening and will continue to happen...
Unless we do something....
I come home next week...time truly flies by here...and I have found that some times when you leave a place...you become to appreciate it more when you're not there....and that rings true for me when I think of home...holidays are good for that...
See you all very soon...
-A
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