Present Joys

Part of a series.

Today was our most relaxed yet. It was a bit of a forced relaxation, since we are staying with Karen’s aunt and uncle in rural Ireland with no transportation. But we had a nice morning exploring Rathgormack, which isn’t much larger than the one street and the few buildings on it. We visited a nearby graveyard (the town’s “old graveyard”). Someone was clearly mowing the place, which must have been a tough job given the abundance of broken and out-of-place headstones. The odd thing about this graveyard wasn’t the old headstones—it was the fact that, given some of the new headstones, people were clearly still being buried there. Past and present in close and strangely beautiful quarters.

The shop that John and (aunt) Karen manage was having a “customer appreciation day” with a cookout and a little outdoor party, so Karen and I walked over there and visited for a while. I think all the village residents were out and about! We ate lunch at the party before hitting the road for a little outing with John and Karen.

They took us to Hook Lighthouse, the oldest continuously operating lighthouse in the world. We had a tour of the old structure (led by a guy named Jamie—one of the kindest and most gregarious people I’ve ever encountered) which consisted of a walk up the spiral staircase with stops on each floor. The view from near the top is spectacular.

And then the sun set. Wow, was this a whole day? Another sleepy ride home and another great time of visiting around John and Karen’s kitchen table. Then, sleep.