A Day in the Life of a Town

Posted on October 31, 2013 by lyonsroarforgod

This is Cahir, Ireland, as seen from a bridge by Cahir Castle. (which just happens to be my very, very favorite castle in Ireland) An ordinary day in the life of a town, except that it happened to be a day that we stumbled upon the bridge, gazed down and took a picture. Given the advantage of height and distance, we could see most of the street, the small cars, the delivery truck, the pedestrians on the sidewalks, the contrasting colors of the shops. (I’ll give you one guess as to which is the souvenir shop!)

Time, distance, perspective can make things seem charming that are sometimes irritating when you are right in the middle of it. 🙂 The challenge is trying to remember that when I’m in the midst of the irritation. Eventually, with enough space and time, it might end up being a good story and I will appreciate it better. Blessings on your day, Lisa

The Castle-Builder

Posted on October 7, 2013 by lyonsroarforgod

THE CASTLE-BUILDER

A gentle boy, with soft and silken locks

A dreamy boy, with brown and tender eyes,

A castle-builder, with his wooden blocks,

And towers that touch imaginary skies.

A fearless rider on his father’s knee,

An eager listener unto stories told

At the Round Table of the nursery,

Of heroes and adventures manifold.

There will be other towers for thee to build;

There will be other steeds for thee to ride;

There will be other legends, and all filled

With greater marvels and more glorified.

Build on, and make thy castles high and fair,

Rising and reaching upward to the skies;

Listen to voices in the upper air,

Nor lose thy simple faith in mysteries.

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Blessings on your day, and build your castles! 🙂 Lisa

Sunny Vs. Soft Day

Posted on September 25, 2013 by lyonsroarforgod

Someone recently commented to me that most of my Ireland pictures were taken on cloudy/rainy/soft days. And I responded that for some reason I liked the pictures of Ireland taken on those soft days better than the sunny ones. Although, when we are in Ireland, I appreciate the warm sunny days so much. But there’s something about old castles, craggy mountainsides, and sheep in the foggy mist that hit me as just about perfect. 🙂 What do you think? Comment below. Here are two sets of similar pictures taken on two different days, with very different weather. Enjoy your sunny or soft day today. Slainte, Lisa

Soft day cliff

Sunny cliffside

Sunny day Ballycarberry castle ruin

Soft day castle ruin

Viewing History

Posted on September 24, 2013 by lyonsroarforgod

Hundreds of years past today, our descendants will look back at 2013 and ponder, pontificate and conjecture about our culture, our political movements, our ancient houses and inventions, which by then will be obsolete. Which rather freaks me out, as it’s hard to think past tomorrow, much less hundreds of years from now when I am singing and hopefully flying(!) in Heaven. 🙂

Take Blarney Castle, for example. Now, visitors from all over the world travel to the elusive and fabled “Blarney Stone” to kiss the lay-on-your-back, bend-backwards and downwards-stone to receive their Irish gift of gab. But when Cormac McCarthy lived there in the 1400’s, he didn’t foresee all that. He was just trying to keep Britain from taking the castle, by stalling, planning banquets for the invaders, and finally escaping attack by using the underground tunnels to go to Kerry and Cork. He was living his life, and hopefully living it well.

So I’m not going to think about this any longer….I’m going to try to live my life today well, no looking back, and looking forward in hope. And I pray the same for you. Slainte, Lisa

Our Little Fixer-Upper By the Sea

Posted on September 3, 2013 by lyonsroarforgod

Sure, it doesn’t have a roof, and you can only reach it by crossing rocks in the water at low tide, but doesn’t it have the view? Just a few weekends’ work and we’ll have it right as rain! wink, wink 😉

Or maybe this one…the views of the Skelligs are rather nice. 🙂 Have a dreaming kind of day! Blessings, Lisa

Think About These Things

Lisa Lyons

Tag Archives: castles