Category Archives: Travel

And In the Town, There Was a Cottage

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Sometimes I love to think about all the millions of towns, scattered in every country of the world.  And every town is full of people, living somewhere, and going through their everyday lives.  Then I think about how I don’t know most of these people, and I probably never will.  But they all matter; they are all created in the image of God.

Then my mind starts to think of the towns that I have traveled to before…ones that I loved and lived in for a short while, like Portmagee, Ireland.  For a while, we stayed there, shopped in their grocery stores, ate at their restaurants, listened to their music, and then we came home.  Yet life in Portmagee continues, and we are continuing here back at home.  The musings of a Saturday….:)

And In the Town…

…there was a cottage. A wonderful cottage.
Reencaheragh Cottage, Portmagee

May your little corner of the world be blessed today; you are important and loved by your Creator!  Slainte, Lisa

Truth Vs. Beauty, or are they the same?

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The truth can sometimes be hard to face, and some would say, ugly.  Yet the truth sets you free.  There is nothing to hide behind, no deception, no unreality.  Truth is truth, and it’s real, and it never changes.  Our world is obsessed with beauty, with beautiful people, with trying to stay beautiful.  Yet the truth of who and what we are, of living life,  is beautiful too.  Because we’re all flawed people who are trying to love the best we can.  Here are some “truthful” pictures of old, broken down homes in Ireland, that some would call ugly and an eyesore.  Yet, to me they are beautiful, they have stories to tell, and they live as a testimony to the lives of those who passed before us.

Worn-out tower staircase

Abandoned Home or Inn, Gap of Dunloe

An old room with a view

I am challenging myself to look for beauty in the unexpected and the truthful places.  I want to be the kind of person who can see some good, even in the worst of situations.  Because I definitely would like people to do that for me.

Slainte, Lisa

How to Not Look Like a Tourist, but Still Get the Picture

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One of my big things when I travel is that I don’t want to look like the typical “tourist”…different clothes, awestruck look on my face everytime I see a new thing, inevitable camera firing away at everything.  Yet, the more I think I about this, how can you avoid it?  I mean, you can try your best to dress similarly to the native population, and adopt similar cultural mannerisms, but you NEED the pictures.  When I get home, I get so much pleasure from looking at all the pictures again.  They capture the moments; moments that you might forget otherwise.  So the camera stays…they’ll just have to know I’m a happy tourist.  Here’s Amy with her Princess camera….she started young.  🙂

Slainte, Lisa

Right Place, Right Time, Right People

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In life, in photography, in just about everything, timing is important.  It can mean the difference between good and bad outcomes, between the right word or an insensitive one, or an average versus a special picture.  My husband and I are only amateur photographers, but I think he captured one of the special kind of photos on this day.  Amy and I are chilling out in the field after exploring a church ruin, and Nina is curious as to what her Dad is doing crouching down low in the weeds and wildflowers.  Right place, right time, right people.  Have a beautiful weekend, with wonderful timing and just the perfect people.

Slainte, Lisa

Waiting, Seeing, Sweetness

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To save money, we decided to split up.  My daughters and I would ride in the horse-drawn buggy through the Gap of Dunloe, and my husband and 15 year old son would run/walk and meet us at the boats.  We joked about who would arrive first…the trusty horse and its passengers, or the hearty he-men who would conquer the mountainous terrain.  Amazingly, the hearty he-men kept catching up with us at various points along the way, as seen in the below picture.

Joshua, catching up with our jaunting car.

We did reach the bridge leading to Lord Brandon’s Cottage only 10 minutes before our guys, and we waited anxiously and excitedly for their arrival.  That’s us in the first picture…you can just see the top of little Amy’s head.  My husband is taking the picture, and I can remember how happy we were to see them coming.  Absence had indeed made our hearts grow fonder in this case, and the reunion as a family was sweet.  And of course, our guys had conquered, overcame, and reveled in the experience.  Many good stories were off and running.

Slainte, Lisa