Where are you? Where were you?

Where did we start?  Where did we go? Where did we end up? 

My children have been in and then moving to different cities and states all over. My siblings live in Illinois and Ohio.  I live in California.  My husband's group live in Utah, Georgia, Missouri, Colorado, Vermont, and somewhere else. 

Our most eventful move took us to Ireland. We traveled with our children, saw castles and more.  And from Ireland our family headed out to distant places.

   

My daughter lives in Bern, Switzerland, with husband and our grandsons. Since Covid, our trips to see them were cut off. October 2023? Maybe?

My brother Don lives in Springfield, in Lincoln Land. This is a lovely city to visit. Lincoln lived there and ultimately was buried there. So much history surrounds this legendary place.

 

I grew up 100 miles from Springfield.  Our son now lives near Champaign-Urbana. St. Louis is about 90 miles from our farm.  Dad took hogs to market down in east St. Louis. I flew into St. Louis innumerable times over the 40 years when I visited my parents.

 

My brother went from farm boy in Illinois, to being a police officer in Texas, He was a cowboy at heart. But he lived around Galveston, along the coast. Bill had an adventurous spirit.

 

We have been to Phoenix many times. Irish Dance Festivals were our most recent ventures. Great city, do not go to visit in the truly Hot Season.  It is always hot there. We were once walking across mall parking lot; a man drove by in  a large golf cart to get the people to the mall stores alive.  121+ degrees is nothing to laugh at. 

 Small towns become smaller. Our farm was on the north side of town. The house was torn down (built in 1850+) and the pieces of the barn can be seen in between trees. We lived on the Nebo-Pittsfield road, in Pike County, Illinois.

Where we began and have ended up amazes me.  Once my siblings and I were wild cowboys, warriors, soldiers, wreaking general havoc. Now we have taken our own journeys, much milder and more introspective.

 

Search for the Sacred

NGC

Portal
Dolmen in a bare site

Spread the map upon 

the table top

Unfold its creases with care.

Point with sticky fingers,

there...there...there

Dots in random order,

Speak of dirt roads,

Along green walls,

Searching for one place old.

Stones mammoth and ancient,

Balanced and braced,

As Weight of the earth

Called for time’s race.

Under and beneath

Climb on the cap stone,

Feel ocean wind,

Feel the time flown.

Until on the table 

once again,

The map unfolds,

Seeking deep caverns

Where the Earth opens.

 Spread the map on table top. 

Leac an Scail, Co. Kilkenny

Spreading the paper map on the kitchen table on a Sunday afternoon was our special time in Ireland.  We climbed castle keeps, crawled down caves, and hid beneath cap stones at sacred dolmens. 

No MAP APP needed or wanted.