Memories of Ireland

This being, March, and with St. Patricks day just past it has really made me miss Ireland. I am of Irish and Choctaw descent. Both earthy, both stubborn, both resourceful, both spiritual, both strong, and both always right.
My first trip to Ireland, was quite frankly, a trip of need. I had an overwhelming need to go to Ireland. I can't explain it except to say, I had an overwhelming need to go home. I was so homesick I was miserable. No, you didn't misread that, it was my first trip to Ireland. You see, I believe in inherited memories. That's the only explanation I could come up with. I had memories of a home I had never been to, a home I had never seen or felt.
So off to Ireland my sweet husband took me. We landed in Shannon, rented a car, and hit the road. Never a plan, never a care of what if. We loved it. I treasured every moment of it. On the Cliffs of Moher, I had a very spiritual experience. I can't explain it, but if you've ever had one of this kind, I don't need to. It just was. We visited many tourists things as one would do. But for me, just feeling the ground, touching a wall or a stone or walking through a graveyard was very comforting. I felt loved by this place as I have never felt before.
My great grandmother was from Ireland. My biological father's people were from Ireland, Kennedy's. Someone, that came before me, that wanted to go home to Ireland so badly, left that memory for me. Just like my whiskey colored eyes were inherited, so was this memory of home. It was my pleasure to fulfill this desire. It was an honor to be given the gift of knowing the belonging of such a place as Ireland.
One day I'll tell you the story of being accidentally locked in a castle. It really happened to Mike and I on our first trip there.
American by birth. Irish by heart.

Magic

Do you believe in magic? Last Tuesday night on NCIS, Abbey told a man, "I believe in magic, prayer and logic equally." A couple days went by and my daughter texted me and said, "I have just heard the mantra for my life." Then she told me what Abbey had said. I told her that I had indeed heard that. Now let me explain here; my daughter is her fathers child. By that I mean she is highly intelligent and logical to a fault. So to hear this from her I was a little curious as just what she meant by that. I get the prayer and logic part, but what did she mean by the magic part. So I asked. And I'm proud to say, she is, after all, her mothers child as well.
You see, I'm not talking about black magic or slight of hand magic, no. I'm talking about the magic that happens when you are chosen to witness an otherwise, perfectly normal,  act of nature, or hear an otherwise perfectly normal sound or experience a perfectly normal course of events, and you realize it was made especially for you at this perfect time as you do nothing more than breathe. A gift, as it were, from a loving a God, with your name on it. Let me be more specific and share with you some of my magic moments:
A pair of cardinals on the back fence kissing...The sound of a hawk that draws your attention heavenward... The giggle of your child giving away a hiding place...A silent prayer answered that makes your heart smile...Sitting silently in the presence of a dying parent or grandparent. It's a time, a moment made just for you by your Heavenly Father. This, my friend is real magic. It's called grace. It's called love. It's called....peace.