Unexpected Trips
It was all set that I would make a surprise trip at the end of January to Dublin for Mum’s 80th and a family gathering with her siblings. My January was all planned out - back to the studio, the clear out, the beginnings of new work. Two commissions that I had woefully neglected (and probably lost) the determination to start out well and gallop into 2026.
Christmas 2025 was in Canada and we were joined by my Mum and younger brother from Ireland and my older brother and his family from England. It ended with my flying home with Mum (no major drama, we are all ok!) and I stayed in Ireland for the whole month.
Bliss? Yes and no.
But I did take time out entirely to be alone at our cottage in Donegal. It’s a haven at any time of the year. It’s a place where the land meets the sea in spectacular form, the skies are wide open and the vast barren landscapes take your breath away
There is a wildness that will never tame - it captivates you and pulls you in, closely, so you listen more carefully to how the land speaks.
I have added a SOCIAL NEWS page to my website for those of you not on Instagram. This will allow you to view some of my content, my inspiration and all that is part of my art.
When the mind is festering with trouble or the heart torn, we can find healing among the silence of mountains or fields, or listen to the simple, steadying rhythm of waves.
The slowness and stillness gradually takes us over. Our breathing deepens and our hearts calm and our hungers relent.
When serenity is restored, new perspectives open to us and difficulty can begin to seem like an invitation to new growth.
This invitation to friendship with nature does of course entail a willingness to be alone out there. Yet this aloneness is anything but lonely.
Solitude gradually clarifies the heart until a true tranquility is reached.
The irony is that at the heart of that aloneness you feel intimately connected with the world. Indeed, the beauty of nature is often the wisest balm for it gently relieves and releases the caged mind.
John O’Donohue, Irish poet and philosopher
Excerpt from BEAUTY: THE INVISIBLE EMBRACE (US) / DIVINE BEAUTY (Europe)
