With St. Patrick’s Day coming up, my mind has been turning back to the time I spent in Ireland. I went with two of my aunts, one who is an artist and the other who is a genealogist. it was an amazing experience for me and because I was there with these two incredible women, I saw Ireland completely different than I would have otherwise.
My artist aunt would point out the heather against the rocks or comment on the sheep out in the field or observe the pattern in a stack of peet logs. She drew my attention to the natural beauty of the Emerald Isle because she noticed little things that I would have overlooked.
We would go to museums and graveyards and my other aunt would point someone there and then describe our relation to them, tracing our family lines back hundreds of years. We would go to cities that that were connected to our family somewhere down the line and my aunt would lay out the entire genealogy to show how we were related.
Because of these two women, my trip to Ireland was probably the most meaningful trip that I’ve taken. I learned so much about the strength and pride of the people and I also learned an entirely new side of my self and those that had gone before me. Ireland will always hold a special place in my heart and is somewhere I want to discover more of.
