Posted in Different Moments

Ireland: Day 6

A day of such natural beauty
This day was especially filled
Started with full Irish breakfast
To navigate these emerald hills

Dunseverick castle reminded
Our desire for safe and secure
Can also mean isolation
While our walls will crumble for sure

Ensconced in the beauty surrounding
While hiking both round, down, and up
As if we had just finished praying
“Lord, with beauty, fill my cup.”

The waves slowly crashing on boulders
Their ancient soundtrack still playing
We traveled to the Giant’s Causeway
Not far from where we were staying

A hike all around the cliff’s edges
An awe-inspiring view
To pause and breathe in such wonder
So often, we simply eschew

Climbing, exploring like children
Each step well apportioned and shaped
One direction, a coastal exhibit
The other, pastoral landscaped

Next, a brief stop in Bushmills
To refresh our stomachs and mind
Tiring, yet still pressing forward
To Dunluce to see what we’d find

Through rain, we saw cliff-sided castle
Which inspired Aslan’s abode
With gratitude for redemptive story
Back to Ballycastle, we hit the road

Posted in Different Moments

Ireland: Day 5

Another day dawned for exploring
To the Hill of Tara we went
Where ancient kings and their kingdoms
Assembled for whom they were sent

On this hill of archaic importance
Saint Patrick came to address
To show Kings the way of the Triune
As path to be divinely blessed

A place of such legend and wonder
Yet Truth only can set all free
The Kings of old, no longer reigning
His Kingdom spreads out globally

Next to the Hillsborough Castle
Where more recent royalty stays
Lush gardens proclaiming in opulence
We’ve moved on from our ancient ways

Strolling through beautiful gardens
Each bed gently weeded and pruned
Reminds us the care of our gardener
Who waters and tends every wound

Yet hidden in tapestried corners
Desires to be those now blessed
Relying more on our politic
Than on the faith once confessed

A drive up the East Coastal Causeway
We’re cleared of all cobwebs or crown
Reminded, in God’s good creation
The Creator Himself has come down

Each sharp turn a prayer reminder
“Lord, guide both our drive and our path
May we walk as those always with You
Instead of avoiding Your wrath”

Posted in Different Moments

Ireland: Day 4

An earlier dawn we saw coming
To go acquire one more steed
For to launch into further adventure
More engine and seats did we need

We journeyed south to Wicklow
Glendalough, valley of the two lakes
Surrounded by green, every corner
Our souls to creation, awakes

The roots of St. Kevin’s order
Shapes both the landscape and myth
Beholding the beauty and history
And the hand of the one I came with

Round tower and old leaning gravestones
A deer quietly munching on greens
The ruins of churches like castles
And we, their new kings and queens

A kingdom which time has abandoned
Remembered, and calling us back
Through labyrinths and stories of prayer
To slow down and see where we lack

For though we have constant connection
So often we miss living Word
Confusing our constant scrolling
For the Love He desires be heard

A slow winding coffee-filled journey
Back to the city we came
To simmer in family’s presence
In their welcome, we were entertained