(An open door….)

Happiness sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open. – John Barrymore

Allowing yourself to follow your bliss leaves the door open…. Mairead.

(Rusty window at Killruddery, Bray)

“It’s not your job to like me – it’s mine.” – Byron Katie

I’ll do my job and you do yours. Mairead.

(Or keep to your own path…..)

“Do exactly what you would do if you felt most secure.” – Meister Eckhart

Now what would you do? Mairead.

Quote on wall outside Francis Bacon Studio in Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin.

“Things don’t have to change the world to be important.” - Steve Jobs

A baby step is enough, Mairead.

(Street lighting outside the National Museum in Kildare Street, Dublin.)

Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you’re scared to death. – Harold Wilson

Kinda scary being who you want to be…. Mairead.

(1,213 year old leather buttons on Psalter at the National Museum)

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but Imagination!” – Albert Einstein

Let the daydreaming begin, Mairead.

(Field trip to the Museum in Kildare Street Dublin, here’s a close up low light on the Ardagh Chalice)

“What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Repeated baby steps are better than some of the alternatives, Mairead.

(Decorative Arts and History Museum, Collins Barracks, Dublin 7)

We went to visit Collins’ Barracks in Dublin yesterday. I had never been. It’s just twenty minutes walk from O’Connell Street and right beside Heuston Train Station. It has free parking and free admission. We were there because I was searching for some button history and I heard the museum had a permanent exhibition of Irish clothes, jewellery and accessories. There wasn’t much on buttons but there was lots of other stuff.

(Quote from Eileen Gray)

There was a huge area dedicated to the  life and work of Eileen Gray. She was “an Irish woman who became one of the most influential designers and architects of the 20th century.” (from the brochure.) She was still designing and working on a project when she died at 98. She had a design shop in Paris in 1922, where she sold her furniture.

(This little book is about four inches high)

But the exhibit that had the biggest impact on me was in a glass case with no description or explanation. It seemed to be from a mother to her now dead son, Will, telling him how much she loved him and how much she misses him. He died on the 22nd of August 1776, he was almost a year old. It is sometimes difficult to connect with the characters of history, with their odd clothes and unfamiliar lifestyle, but I have no difficulty connecting with Will’s mother.

We’ll be back, Mairead.

“I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.” Robert Frost. 

Maybe Lost is exactly the right place to be, Mairead.

(Happy Buttons)

“Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.” -Aeschylus

It’s worth the effort, Mairead.