Just Another Irish Sunrise

  Last Sunday I went home to visit my folks in PA. *My* meeting house, (the ones who loved me first) asked me to do Adult First day. For those what-the-hell-is-a-Quaker-people, Adult First Day is sort of like Sunday school for grown ups...sort of..).
The topic was mine to fiddle with, but they asked me to talk about my Ireland trip. The pilgrimage that changed my life. I've never written about it publicly, because it seems like a daunting task. I feel like I want to tell the world about everything and at the very same time keep it tucked up in my heart as my own private Talisman. So many feelings with so much explored, learned, and internalized with no way to truly convey the experience. But maybe I can offer this:
      This cold February morning, as I drink my coffee and enjoy the silence, I find myself fixated on a specific moment in time. To last April where I am standing at a bus stop with my pack, my bear and my suitcase waiting for the wheels that would deposit me at the airport once again. I watched the sun come up over the Muir Éireann. Peaking up over the water, rising above the stone wall and giving light to a rare crystal blue sky. Not fair. Its suppose to rain when I leave. Always suppose to rain when I leave. The sun arose over the next chapter of my life without me even truly knowing it and at the same time I feel like I did. Sleep deprived and restless, I took in the moment. I was able to be present in that very moment with a feeling that even though I would be touching down in a city no different then when I left it two weeks before, everything had changed. That sunrise-that sunrise changed everything. I had spent the previous 6 hours bawling my eyes out (A normal occurrence when leaving). But this sunrise gave me peace. I was ready to return to my city. To my Roomie, and my books. That sunrise gave me strength which I would desperately need in the following few months as I figured out what parts of my life to lay down and what path to follow next. That particular sunrise is keeping me warm and brave until its time to once again watch to clouds part over the green.  I've many miles to walk here still. That sunrise helped me realize that.