New Friends & A Place for Reflection
Well, I know it's terrible that I'm not posting pics this time, but I've been too busy doing things to remember the camera. I promise improvement in that department. Well, this Friday night I'm going out to see Pride & Prejudice with Norah (one of Blayne's classmates) and her roomate Sarah (a Master's student in Ethomusicology). They are both very friendly and very fun to talk to. They are of course, much busier than I am, since they have to study. But, hopefully we'll still get to be good friends. It is so very strange that we've been here for two weeks and we've spent alot of time with new people, but we haven't had anyone over to our flat yet. Given that our house has always been central to social events it's so wierd. I'm not sure how I feel about that, except right now it just feels strange. We mostly meet people at pubs for music, oh and on Sunday afternoon after we visited church #2-a local presbyterian and methodist church (more about that in a sec) we went with our friend Mary to Bunratty folk park for the wheat threshing day. It's sort of like Centennial Village in Greeley except MUCH older things, including a 15th century castle, a manor house built in 1805, and other buildings, some of which were relocated to the site for display. It was a delight :0)
As for the church, it really had some lovely parts in the liturgy, some elements presbyterian, some methodist in tradition. we will keep on searching as the Gospel was somewhat lacking in the teaching and there were some rather awkward moments in the music. We'll keep you posted as we continue to search for a church where we'll feel at home.
On my last post I said I was going out for a ramble on the River Shannon, and I found such a wonderful spot. On the north west side of the city you can pull off by the river and walk along for about a half mile to an old church ruin with a grave yard around it. There are cows & sheep grazing nearby, the river is full of geese & swans and the rolling hills in the distance are such a vibrant green when it's a clear day (which it was for the time i was there). I was kicking myself for not bringing the camera, but I will back out there soon for more reflection and journaling time, and I promise I'll take pictures of it.
We're getting ready to head off to a session at Dolan's tonight here in town. Blayne recorded the session there last week and learned all 20 or so tunes on it that he didn't know so that he could play tonight. Have I mentioned that he is going to be a flute ROCK STAR by the time we get back. He is loving things musically here. So, goodnight & God bless. Love you all!
As for the church, it really had some lovely parts in the liturgy, some elements presbyterian, some methodist in tradition. we will keep on searching as the Gospel was somewhat lacking in the teaching and there were some rather awkward moments in the music. We'll keep you posted as we continue to search for a church where we'll feel at home.
On my last post I said I was going out for a ramble on the River Shannon, and I found such a wonderful spot. On the north west side of the city you can pull off by the river and walk along for about a half mile to an old church ruin with a grave yard around it. There are cows & sheep grazing nearby, the river is full of geese & swans and the rolling hills in the distance are such a vibrant green when it's a clear day (which it was for the time i was there). I was kicking myself for not bringing the camera, but I will back out there soon for more reflection and journaling time, and I promise I'll take pictures of it.
We're getting ready to head off to a session at Dolan's tonight here in town. Blayne recorded the session there last week and learned all 20 or so tunes on it that he didn't know so that he could play tonight. Have I mentioned that he is going to be a flute ROCK STAR by the time we get back. He is loving things musically here. So, goodnight & God bless. Love you all!
posted by debchastain at 11:35 AM
4 Comments:
Deborah,
I have been at Gran's the last two days and we spoke of you, so it was a nice surprise to come home and have an update to read. I miss you a great deal (as I know everyone else must) and wish it were possible to visit you there. It sounds beautiful. Take care and enjoy yourself - what an amazing opportunity! Hugs to both of you!
Hello Deborah! I've been enjoying your posts, and I'm especially interested in your church search. Your description last week actually made me homesick for the boarding school in India where I worked in 1989-90. Many of the missionaries I worked with were from the UK. One couple in particular -- the headmaster and his wife -- had that style of worship that you described, with time between verses for individual prayer or scripture or whatever, very unstructured. Because I was young and searching and they were mature and solid, for me it has a lovely sense of mature Christians comfortable in seeking the Holy Spirit! I'm sorry it didn't seem that way to you.
The pictures you've shared have been stunning. I guess you'll have to come home when Blayne's done, right?
Love,
Joanna
Joanna, I did feel that it left room for the Spirit to move, but it also left room for large egos to sing out longer and hear their own voices. I think that the people there were worshiping and that it's a wonderful thing. I just have never been in that kind of service and while i can appreciate it, i don't enjoy it as a whole, though there were moments of it that i was able to worship. as for coming home, our tickets are for june 13th and we can only legally stay in the country til the end of june, so we'll be coming home, i promise ;0)
i've been keeping an eye out for fun boy names for you...here's a few different ones, kieran, larkin, declan, brendan, damien, dermot, liam, cathal, noel, eamon, donal, conor, collin, seamus, sean, & niall.
don't know if any of them interest you, but there you have it.
Hola amigos. Los extrano mucho. Espero con mucho anticipacion el regreso de ustedes. Los amo mucho.
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