Over recent years, the grand Céad míle fáilte was extended to not only Kennedy, but Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, both of Irish descent.
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Having just celebrated Independence Day here in the U.S., I have been thinking about the number of Celtic peoples who helped form our early republic.
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To me, tarot decks are like flash cards, teaching me aspects of mythology and folklore that I had not been exposed to in my education or family background. I love pulling cards just to learn a tidbit about another place or another figure. I feel the power of story strongly in a well-presented deck of cards. I invite you to try one of the many decks that are available not just stories from Celtic mythology but from other lands as well.
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Today, I am thinking about all the wonderful music, poetry, and other expressions of art that such summer beauty has inspired.
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Can you imagine what it was like for our ancestors? Damp, cold, standing water in the grasslands, dark days with only a fire for light and warmth? It certainly makes sense that they would create monuments to the Sun, calibrated to align with the Sun on the solstice when the sun is at its highest and the length of the day is longest. How they must have yearned for summer. How they must have watched for the signs of the turning of the seasons.
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The picture above is one of my favorites. I came over the rise of the hill leading up to my favorite stone circle. There-smack dab in the middle of what I consider sacred space- was this little cutie looking right at me. I not only got the perfect picture but we also had quite a nice I-Thou communication going until his mother scurried him away. I liked the picture so much I chose it for the back cover of my new novel Amidst the Stones.
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Lough Gur is one of the magical sites in Ireland often overlooked by tour buses and tourists, making it all the more worth visiting. Lough Gur is also the site of the Grange stone circle and enchanting ancient ruins. See Snapshots of Clare and Limerick for more.
This guest blog is from Leah Eggleston Krygowski, a book reviewer, avid reader, and aspiring writer who recently caught the international travel bug following her first trip to Ireland. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, John, and their two Cairn terriers.
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No, dear reader, this is not a test of your memory. Last month at this time, you did read that I had pulled the World Tree as our tarot card for May. Here it is again; but, pulled from a different deck and at a different time. The coincidence is stunning, especially when we had seen it before in February.
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Let’s imagine today that we are traveling through the green, rolling hills of Oxfordshire, England. There on a far hillside we see a white horse. At least, we see a free-flowing, dynamic outline of a creature in motion that is usually viewed as a horse. Now imagine being of a time long ago when people were not exposed to media as we are today. It must have been an even more awesome and wonderous sight.
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Several years ago, I wrote a book of essays, A Smidgen of Irish Luck, about my travel to Ireland simply because I found extraordinary where there is ordinary, engaged in conversations in the oddest places and adjusted to the inevitable raindrops like a local.
Read MoreMusings On a Trip to Ireland is the title of next week’s blog. Our guest is Kay Thomas, author of A Smidgen of Irish Luck. Kay and I both live in western NY and share a lot for travel, for story and for writing. Kay writes a bi-weekly newspaper column as well as blogs at www.kathomaswriter.com. Or connect at https://www.facebook.com/Kaythomaswriter or on Twitter and Instagram @Kaywriter.
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Writing about Beltane is a bit like writing about Christmas; the holiday has so many different traditions and its celebrations has many layers of meaning. Visiting Celtic cultures during May Day festivities also reminds me of U.S. Memorial Day when all take vacation and hold picnics and parades. Some think of the original meaning of the day; others just see a long weekend to unwind.
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