UnearthingTara:Becoming an Archeologist in Ireland: Don't Wanna Miss A Thing

Failte!

I'm excited to share my adventures with all of you! I want your first taste of my life in Ireland to be this poem that I wrote very late one night when I was a Junior in College. Its meaning seems eerily prophetic now. More than anything, I've created this blog to make the actualization of this life-long dream of mine visible to those I love: my friends who are my foundation, my endlessly supportive family, my mentors and co-workers who inspire me, and my former students who have given me enough satisfaction and fulfillment to last two lifetimes... Have the courage to believe that your wildest dreams can come true.

Is fhearr fheuchainn na bhith san duil, (It is better to try than to hope)

Mourn (A Seaside Peak in Southern Ireland)

The dark, earthen sod saturates her fair feet,
but briefly since she frolics fast in knee high
blades of greenest grass that blow dizzily in the Celtic-sea air.

Her wool skirt, stiffened by ware of evenings past
is splashed by cresting waves that break
against a beach blacker than her hair.
Those once stiffer fibers were loosed by nights upon nights
of hanging perfectly on his line before being wildly blown dry
by the crisp Hibernian salt air.

The pair sits to rest a while instead of dodging
breakers or skipping paler stones.

"Indian summer's here," he says softly,
but all of summer here feels like the edge
of autumn to her, even though she grins in agreement
as she dangles her pale, soft feet off Achilles' peak,
where Erin's vermillion-gold sky meets
an ocean that is grey with years.

She sleeps with her eyes closed tight most nights.
He asks her if she believes in Tier-Nan-Og,
and she asks him if he believes in anything eternal.
Outside the tide is rising, or it's receding—
She never can tell but for the strengthened smell of
salty freshness strained through his light, lace curtains.
She thinks to herself that he is like trying to hold the sea 
and she imagines the water running between her fingers--
clenched so tight.

And so, the night calls her out of her sleeping,
like daytime chides her into dreaming.
She slips her white fingers through the holes of an old loose scarf
that affords her more company than warmth
on these newborn autumn evenings. She is off-- 
Night clouds reflect emerald from land to sea,
And the tara that she never eyes from long hours of
staring too far into star blanketed skies,
feels cool against the thickening pads of her pallid feet.

Elisabeth Lewis (2005)

19 October 2011

Don't Wanna Miss A Thing

It's Wednesday, so it's time for a list of things that made me Happy Today!

10. Team CandLiggle is back in action AND in Carolina Blue Fall wardrobe!! (see below)

9. Being Betty to Candace's Don Draper and baking pie while she's at school

8. PRODUCTIVITY. I finished my field work portfolio, planned my presentation,

did P90x with Tony, cleaned, and made homemade pie crust all before noon.

7. The lavender candle Candace brought home

6. Finished a good book.

5. My skype date tonight! (That I accidentally slept through last night) <3

4. Beautiful cherry tomatoes that I eat like candy

3. Sweater(dress) weather. The one I'm wearing today, I bought for $8 at a

thrift store in NoDa 5 years ago

2. Email from Pauly's Mum today telling me the best way to get to

London to spend the Holidays with the North Family this year.

*No family (other than my own) I'd rather be with on Christmas*

1. Rereading the letter I got from Helen (who has known me for 23 years)

"When you feel like you're far away in your foggy corner of the world, read your letters again and remind yourself that the love from family and friends is the best sweater in the world....imagine your adventures in archeology, the exciting realization that you're living out what a younger self so hopefully prophesied..."