Been up since 2am. I've already had two cups of coffee, written a sharing for a retreat and folded laundry.
No, I am not crazy. Just a weird early early early morning person on this particular day.
And this particular day is one of my favorites - The day of the Irish! It's a wonderful day and the whole mood was set on Saturday night.
While many of my O'Reilly relatives are celebrating good ol St. Paddy's day in Montana complete with my cousins, the bagpipers...
....we gathered at the Druffner home/hobby farm in Hudson for an evening complete with poetry recitations, dancing, singing, Irish trivia, laughter, food and drink and meeting more Trinity families.
This is the type of party I love.There was good company, the biggest container of Irish stew I had ever seen, and incredible hosts who greeted us warmly and invited us in to share our talents and enthusiasm for this day,
Their Great Room was grand - large, open, huge fireplace, looked like a room from the Austen era where you would dine and dance. And we did. Dined and danced and listened as guest after guest shared his/her talents during an open mic time.
I nearly swooned as one guy played an Irish jig and then a farewell song on his fiddle. And it wasn't the Bailey's Irish cream I was sipping. I just love the fiddle. Could have listened to that all night.
But I was treated to more:
One couple's acapella duet was tender and moving. Thigpen's Wedding song moves me every time I hear it. (You can hear it below. Although I don't particularly like the video, the music and words are beautiful.)
A husband read and dedicated Seamus Heaney's The Skylight to his wife and hostess Molly. (Poem is included below)
A mother sang an Irish farewell song to her son who was returning to college the next day.
A father beamed as his young daughter recited "Ooey Gooey" with perfect poise and confidence.
Corny jokes followed - "The cornier, the better", Molly says, "It's the Irish way."
The Irish way was indeed alive and well on this evening - one that I will never forget.
Erin go Bragh!
That's "Ireland Forever!" as I learned during our trivia game. Which our team lost by the way.
But I am not bitter. The memory of the rest of the evening makes me smile and not care about not winning.
The Bailey's helped too.
The Skylight
You were the one for skylights. I opposed
Cutting into the seasoned tongue-and-groove
Of pitch pine. I liked it low and closed,
Its claustrophobic, nest-up-in-the-roof
Effect. I liked the snuff-dry feeling,
The perfect, trunk-lid fit of the old ceiling.
Under there, it was all hutch and hatch.
The blue slates kept the heat like midnight thatch.
Cutting into the seasoned tongue-and-groove
Of pitch pine. I liked it low and closed,
Its claustrophobic, nest-up-in-the-roof
Effect. I liked the snuff-dry feeling,
The perfect, trunk-lid fit of the old ceiling.
Under there, it was all hutch and hatch.
The blue slates kept the heat like midnight thatch.
But when the slates came off, extravagant
Sky entered and held surprise wide open.
For days I felt like an inhabitant
Of that house where the man sick of the palsy
Was lowered through the roof, had his sins forgiven,
Was healed, took up his bed and walked away.
Sky entered and held surprise wide open.
For days I felt like an inhabitant
Of that house where the man sick of the palsy
Was lowered through the roof, had his sins forgiven,
Was healed, took up his bed and walked away.
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