(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.
(It takes time to grow a tree)
“The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.” – Leo Tolstoy
It might seem like a huge effort will get things finished, sometimes… not so. Mairead.
(Tree with some battle scars)
“Courage is not the lack of fear. It is acting in spite of it.” – Mark Twain
If you’re scared, turn it into courage by taking that next step. Mairead.
(Lost in a forest of little leaves)
“Everyone is a genius, but judge a fish on ability to climb a tree & it will live its life believing it is stupid”. – Albert Einstein.
Put your attention on what makes you a genius, Mairead.
(What you looking at?)
“The shell must break before the bird can fly.” – Alfred Lord Tennyson
Is there something you need to break? Mairead.
(We went to Dublin on Saturday and saw some socks)
Good morning (no it’s not Sunday afternoon…) I’m sitting looking out the window as the sun is breaking through from behind a cloud – lots of bright rays, like the way my seven-year old self used to draw the sun (well I still doodle it that way…)
(We nearly hired Dublin Bikes)
I probably should run out and get a picture for you but it’s quite nice just sitting here looking t it and dropping my head occasionally to write a line. Our cat Fred is sitting on the desk beside me looking at the sun too or maybe he’s looking at the birds.
(We walked on the cobblestones)
A plane went by, very high up above the sun’s cloud and I am wondering about the people in it. It’s very hard from down here beside the cat in front of the cloud to imagine more than one hundred people sitting up there in the sky….. possibly having their breakfast. Then it’s very difficult to imagine the life of anyone else as I sit here in my life with the cat and the cloud. Even when I do imagine that life I know it’s only from my point of view. And the details are made up of my experience of a slightly similar situation.
Now Fred is looking at me and I’m wondering about his life…. probably time to get up, Mairead.
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