flowers in profusion at Kylemoor Abbey's Victorian Garden

Thank You, God, for our being on this trip!

Thank You that the volcano’s cloud is no longer stopping planes — and, yes, it would be wonderful if we don’t see a repeat of that Power of Nature Exhibit.

I suppose that I like Nature best in this profusion of flowers! And I rather like the jumble effect as opposed to the trimmed and tidy ovals of the Victorian Garden. Perhaps that comes from having loved the Secret Garden as a child.

Cover of the Secret Garden illustrated by Tasha Tudor

The garden was surely part of the charm of that book — a Victorian Book — but so was the wisdom of Dicken and his mother — and so was the transformation of Mary and Colin. Hmmm. Colin was healed by fresh air, exercise, and nature.  I can’t remember if real food was involved, too. I know real food was part of the healing power of being outdoors in the fresh air in the book Heidi. Odd, God, how we don’t notice how these stories from childhood shape our lives.

I am right now feeling as if I need a “fresh air, real food and exercise” cure! Not that I am “sick” but I am feeling the effects of flying and riding and eating too much — in short — Modern Life — or should I say the “White Flour” life?

Mind You, God, after driving through Connemara (above Galway in Ireland) — and seeing the small plots of land and wee stone cottages that had to feed and house 10 to 15 people — I don’t want to go back to that sort of life. Hmmm. The famine of the 1840s was about the blight that destroyed the potatoes — a 4-5 year blight that came shortly after the herring stopped coming. The hungry people couldn’t hunt or fish for fresh water fish as they were only renting that land and had no “right” to the game. And with so many mouths to feed on very little land the potato was the only plant that could produce enough calories. To have it fail, was disaster.

Nature play her part — but so did a grievously unfair economic structure with absentee landlords who had contempt for their tenants. Sigh. While people starved and died on the side of the road, Ireland was exporting food.

It was greed back then, too. How easy it is to see “wrongs” looking back in time — how hard it is to see what is under our noses.  Ah, God. Help me look. Help me begin by the simple step of watching myself — watching what I eat — watching what I feed my mind — watching what I think. With Your Help –That will be a beginning.