there is a place that I can go
where the beauty surrounding equals that within far below.
i feel the earth under my feet
i stop and stretch to slow down for these roots run deep.
i dive untouched under the ocean swell
for this is my home in the country, in love i fell.
down in the valley there is a field
sun shines golden on your skin
i turn to you to tip your hat
bestowed with a simple man’s grin.
i feel the warmth upon my face
cascading free along the waves
if the darkness takes me under and i can’t breathe
i look to the light and am freed.
i hear the siren’s silent call
echoing the resonance within the tree
each beating part of an infinite universe in perfect harmony.
out of the darkness now I can see
a beautiful spirit equally happy and free
for this is where our garden grows
full of promises yet to be known
our loves run, swim and play
grateful for each moment, each day.
It’s amazing the power of your intentions when you put them down in writing…or create something with your hands…perhaps it could only be magic…an energy escaping from your very soul, fingertips to release every line, every story, every molecule of your being that brought you to where you are right here in this moment…letting them go…& gifting them in love…where does that energy go? I never imagined how much it could be shared until now…
I wrote this poem two years ago…lonely & isolated, discontent & burdened…drowning…saved by the sea…I shared my dreams…& now they are all becoming realized…
I fell in love in the garden…serendipity & courage redirected my path there…but i was never alone…even across the Atlantic, I stood east facing the rising sun…& could feel his energy pulling me….I stood east facing the onshore winds… & could hear him calling me home…& i gave thanks.
I found a garden in County Clare, Ireland… & i created a path, & upon that, i knew that i had found a home…for all the years’ that i had struggled…for all the tears that i had shed…had been the intentions of all of my hopes, my dreams…gifted to the universe, so that my burden & heart would be lightened…
this wasn’t always the path that i sought…blinded, i foolishly followed others’…i gave away those dreams, seeking worth in what i could be to them…i gave myself, all of my energy away, often until there was nothing left but an empty shelf…
one year ago, i found renourishment in the sun & the sea…I allowed myself to let everything go…& found the love in myself, in return, in Portugal. I like to pretend that here I became a mermaid:)
…but I continued to drift, & finding my legs on land, giving way…breathless…until i could find my home in the sea again.
In our home in Lackamore, there has always been this energy…this warmth…peace…& comfort…that has carried me through all of the numbing challenges of life alone on the hill… the warmth of the rising sun having finally heated my bed, cold the night before as i would curl up, legs to chest, as i am now able to stretch…catching glimpse the whimsy of the skateboard I keep in the corner of the room, to remind me to be brave & bold!…reaching for a sweater, kept clean & dry to shelter me from the winds & rain, within the antique mahogany dresser, a scent to remind me of the equal shelter of my parents, grandparents’ homes…to the warmth of the morning light of the kitchen, as my eyes begin to open, windows now also as i can greet the weather… or dancing! the music shared as the sounds renew my energy, & the laughter overflows!…or to a place to rest my feet, tired from the days’ long work, or to share a meal with the once strangers now family that have also nourished me in love in this home…as the hunger in my belly, now also filled by the nourishment placed on these wooden shelves…where I could pour my heart into creating a meal to share in love! from the very work of our own hands! this energy has surrounded me…we have survived the challenges of the cold & rejoiced in the warmth of the sun…always together…for I wouldn’t have made it through the Summer without him & this energy, let alone the height of the last days’ harvest, as we celebrated its end…& the beginning of the Fall…
We weren’t supposed to be here…but something did bring our paths together…& having intersected that one day last week in the garden, eyes greeting over a bucket of salad & a bewitching smile…in the kitchen of our home, lips meeting over a mixing bowl & a lovers’ dance…in the sea, bodies flowing over a wave & underneath a child’s playground…& by creating a beautiful space to share, I found the carpenter of my soul…& now our paths continue on together…
for it was he whom had also shared that bed in the midst of winter…& he whom had built those shelves…& those were his belongings left behind that i was cherishing…all there to keep me warm.
So now in October, we will meet in Portugal, & then he will take me home to Clare…where our garden grows, full of promises yet to be known.
The Gratitude Leap 