Dancing to an Irish Reel

I’m back from ten days of sheer bliss on the western coast of Ireland, and I’ll tell you why I returned to the misty, velvet shores of the area where I once spent a year: I wanted to reinvigorate my standing amongst the land and its people, and in order to do that, one has to show up in person to let the very air saturate the skin until it permeates to a cellular level and recalibrates the soul. This is how much Ireland affected me when I lived in the rural village of Inverin in the region of Connemara, yet it took a few months before I allowed myself to let go of my American frame of reference. Once I did, there was such a shift in my being that a local at the grocery store (or the shops, as they call it there) did a double take upon seeing my tranquil face and commented, “Claire, you look more Irish!” I knew just what she implied. I could already feel a newly acquired demeanor settle upon me, one that relaxed me physically and slipped me into a present tense mind frame where a type of willing acceptance of events replaced my harried propensity to manipulate my way through life. Ireland will do this to a person quickly, for it is an island with its own peculiar consciousness spawned from its cloistered history and its humble dependence upon the vagaries of the weather. I see it as an overarching attitude of rightful thinking, something which suggests there’s no point in becoming too worked up over much of anything, for change will rule the day of the best laid plans, and in the meantime, we’re all in it together, safe under the watchful eyes of God. And the Irish are a reverential people. And it’s not just God they revere. They pretty much hold all things sacred: the land, Irish history, each other. And because they comport themselves this way, they don’t take themselves too seriously, which is exactly why they have the reputation of being the friendliest lot on earth.
Let me now digress by confessing I over use the expression, “I can’t tell you how much I love” this or that. The fact is, I can and I did when it comes to the subject of Ireland. It’ll all be in my next novel, “Dancing to an Irish Reel,” to be released on March 31st, 2015. I do so hope you mark your calendar. I’ll be posting many of the photographs I took whilst in Ireland as time draws near and have already posted a few on https://plus.google.com/1010783224159… but many more are coming! To stay in the loop, please like my author page https://www.facebook.com/clairefullertonauthor