Thursday, January 1, 2009

Rekindle the Flame

In 1998 the year Scott and I took an assignment in Europe one of my many goals in that assignment was to rekindle the flame on my childhood farm. I had only spent a few short weeks there in the last 20 years

From A visit to the Farm in Goorey



Since then it has fallen down and my family has built a new small house up near the road. Even though I miss the old house, I am glad they had this comfort.
One of the memories that stayed in my heart in that time away from home was seeing my mother and father sitting by the fire or having tea on the little table with its white lace table cloth. 
 



Since I was home last my father went to heaven and my mother moved out of the little house, to a smaller house closer to Londonderry, to live closer to my sister. My brother bought the land, and my sister fixed the house on the farm up for all of the family to spend a little soul searching time in when they can come home.

Since we are all spread out over England, Ireland, and America, and getting older it gets harder to get together. In 1999 I planned a 2 week trip back to the farm my goals there were:

To sit by the fire like my mother and father did having tea on the little table
Visit my fathers grave
To go to the upper fields
To find the well we used to carry the drinking water from
To just wander all over the little farm
To have a picnic with my mother on the sandy beach
Visit My old School








To make a long story short I did not get the true felling I was after. Carrying 25 years of baggage from my life since I had left as a carefree 18 year made that impossible, but it still was really good. 

I did all the things I wanted to do on the farm. Scott and I took a lovely hike along the MalinHead coast which is the end of Ireland and very close to our family farm. I know there will be another trip back.







We cannot bring the old days back
It fills my heart with pain,
But we can share some memories now
our home is alive again.
I took a walk up on the farm
the well to find,
No More water , stone or stage
it's all moved away with time.
Our Home is there for all to share
A pretty site to see,
Us all around the Table Having tea,



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