Category Archives: Life and Family / Goals

Mar16

Making Dreams Come True

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Irish Sheep

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.

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Feb23

Why I Get the Post-Olympic Blues

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Women white skates. Abstract background on a winter sports theme.

It goes way back.  Back to my first memories of endings.  Things like turning off the Christmas tree for the last time on New Years Day…following a map planner in reverse on the way home from Florida vacation…sitting on the porch the last evening of summer before another long year of school.

I always hated it when the party was over.  For me, endings have always sucked in their own special way.

The closing of the Winter Olympics is particularly poignant to me for some reason.  Okay, okay, I probably know why.  Like they say, so many things in life can be traced back to your mother.   And, since her childhood, my mother had been fascinated with Sonja Henie, figure skating, and the beauty of ice and snow.  For someone who hated the cold, my mother could always see the wonder in it.  For someone who was far from athletic, my mother loved the speed and power involved in figure skating.  Its easy to see why I love watching it so much; I grew up on it, at least as a spectator.  Not to say I didn’t wear my own skates for a while, but overall I was pretty graceless.  (They were good for some preteen date nights at the local ice rink, though…)

But back to endings.  My mother hated them, too.  And she made sure everyone knew it.  So I learned early to cling to the precarious good times and to dread their passing…for they may never come again.  And that was really what it was all about for me, the questions that endings bring.  For me it wasn’t so much about the fun being over for now, as it was about the question…will it ever be this good again?  Will the Christmas tree ever be as pretty again as it is right now?  Will my grandmother still be with us for next year’s Florida vacation?  Will a summer ever be as long and fun and smell as sweet  as this one did?

As an adult, I found out the answers, of course…so my questions were good ones.  I’m glad I took the time to ask, for it gave me an appreciation for the value of those elusive magic moments in life.

And for me, that’s why I love the Olympics so much.  Not only to enjoy the grace and speed and perfection that the athletes draw from their bodies in that most beautiful snow-capped backdrop.   But also, to bear witness to such magic moments of life, the triumphs, even if those particular ones aren’t my own. To know the questions the Olympians from all over the world surely must be asking themselves… Will I make it to the next Olympics?  Will my loved ones still be with me, then, as they are now?  Will it ever be this good again?

So I’ll watch the Closing Ceremonies tonight, as I do every Olympics, and I’ll get that same sappy, age-old ache in my throat that I get with endings.  But deep down, I’m glad that feeling comes, because it reminds me to measure my time and appreciate all the best moments.

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