A number of years ago I made a decision on St. Patrick’s Day.  I set a far reaching goal for myself, a goal that for many would have been no big deal.  Planning a trip to Europe—well, lots of people do it every year.  But some never get the opportunity.

I was somewhere in the middle…

For me, travel was hugely important.  When I was a child, we always planned trips and managed to take one or two vacations per year.  The travel was never overseas, and some years we didn’t go very far from home.  But the magic was in the planning and the execution, regardless of whether it was a long weekend up north or a major road trip to Florida, an Atlantic coast resort, or the various southern states my family still called “home” many, many years after they took permanent residence in Michigan.

So what “big” decision did I make one special St. Patrick’s Day?  Why, to go to Ireland, of course!  My dreams of travel deep in my secret heart had always centered on Europe…to concentrate on exploring one wonderful foreign country per year.  Now that would be heaven.

For some reason Ireland seemed a good place to start.  It was exciting, but didn’t seem too intimidating for a first overseas trip…and I wouldn’t need to speak or understand a new language.  “We’re going to Ireland this year,” I announced that memorable March 17, after watching a cooking show detailing a recipe for a traditional Irish dinner we were planning for the evening.

Okay.  Now I was in the familiar planning stage.  The hardest part seemed to be to convince my boyfriend (new at the time) to “go for it” with me.  He’d never placed a lot of value on travel like me and wasn’t overly wild about the expenses involved.

Up until the prior year when I went solo on a two-week train trip that covered a lot of ground (another story), neither of us had been on a real vacation for over ten years.  Hard to believe for a dedicated traveler like me, but true.  Life has a special way of helping you loose sight of what’s really important, if you let it…

I’d had shifting priorities at work and in my personal life that had wrought some major changes upon those “vacation-less” years, not to mention my perspective.  So, in further emphasizing the significance of this travel goal, taking a trip to Ireland was a major decision for us.

I wasted no time and hurried to the bookstore that same St. Patrick’s Day afternoon to purchase some Ireland travel books and maps.  The next months were spent in happiest speculation as I plotted our route to circumnavigate much of Ireland.  I had only a half-baked idea of where we would sleep each night, reservations for a rental car, and a clutch of Bed and Breakfast vouchers.  Slowly, I was drawing my boyfriend into my dream.

Almost six months to-the-day later, my feet touched Irish ground.  I felt the harsh but magic breath of the sea as I stood on spectacular cliffs overlooking my dream.  I slept in small rooms and ate skimpy meals for the most part to conserve money, but there were a few special splurges in there as well.  I drank in every minute…the wonder, the fragrance, the bracing air, the surreal cloud structure, the stark monuments, and the sheep, of course.  And I watched someone I loved find their own magic in a dream brought to life.

And now, so many years later, I’m using a photo that’s ironically not even my own to illustrate my Ireland days.  Of all the things I saw and experienced, the sheep were the constant.  I loved their quiet dignity and their insolence.

Most of my numerous pictures are tucked away in a closet, waiting to be transferred into digital format; perhaps writing this will give me the spark I need to complete that task.  I think I hold off for emotion’s sake…I haven’t looked at them for so long, except for the ones proudly framed and hanging on our walls.  I believe I’ve locked Ireland away, back into my secret heart where the dream started.  There have been other trips to Europe since, and hopefully there will be some more in the future.  Actually, there’s been a lot of travel for me since then.  But Ireland was like a first love; its freshness and perfection will never be duplicated.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

Mobile users – view desktop site for disclaimer, copyright, etc.; (Image: Fotolia)