W.B. Yeats, the collected poems
“You that would judge me, do not judge alone this book or that, come to this hallowed place where my friends’ portraits hang and look thereon; Ireland’s history in their lineaments trace; think where man’s glory most begins and ends and say my glory was I had such friends.” (William Butler Yeats) © Willeke Van Eeckhoutte and Ireland, Multiple Sclerosis & Me, 2011-2012.
Letting go
Life seems like a joke, out to get you when you least expect it. People disappear from your life, but it’s not until after they’re gone that you realise how much you liked being around them. Or, you understand what being truly happy means because you’ve known absolute sadness. Or you start appreciating silence because you know how loud, annoying and horrible noise can be. Life seems like a joke so; it makes you learn lessons by applying the opposite of what you want. Life is a joke in an ironic way. Murphy’s Law had it in for me years ago. Anything that could go wrong went totally wrong. In the space of 3.5 years I lost part of myself (thank you MS!), and my only sibling, stepdad and four other…
Einstein
I will not write much over the next few weeks but I wanted to leave my blog with this quote to keep us all going until I am fit enough to write again! The quote below is one of my favourites for 2 reasons: a) Albert Einstein is always right and b) should Einstein not be right he still knows how to say it beautifully! “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the universe.” © Willeke Van Eeckhoutte and Ireland, Multiple Sclerosis & Me, 2011-2012. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Willeke Van…
Living in Ireland: a life less ordinary
When I moved from Belgium to Ireland in 2002, I was on top of the world. I thought knew all I had to know about Ireland and sure, I’d adapt very quickly to living life a little bit slower than I was used to. Of course I had traveled to Ireland before actually moving over here, and had fallen in love with it even harder than I ever thought I would. Dublin was a small disappointment at first because the truth is, Dublin is just like any other European capital. But the people, they were and still are the ones that would have me ending up in a stitch, or leave me wondering about their sanity on more than one occasion. A wise man once said: “This is one race…
The Celtic Tree of Life… sort of!
Ever hugged a tree? No? Okay… Maybe you’ve thought about hugging a tree, or something that looked like a tree? The ancient Celts – there are very few real ones left in Ireland -adored and believed fairies lived in trees, assigning them special powers. I love trees myself, often strong and unwilling to move whatever goes against them, rejuvenating themselves year after year. Ireland was tree-paradise, but once the English set foot on our shores, and saw that Irish trees would make for better ships, their naval fleet happily sang chop-ahoy-chop-chop-them- oaks. In short: aside from having to sacrifice land, language, music, traditions, and food, Ireland had to offer their sacred trees to the enemies of the day. Now, all that aside, I love to think I have some Celtic…