FRIENDSHIP, LOVE, AND HOPE: MYTH OR REALITY?

 

A series of essays....

LIGHT BREAKS THROUGH FROM THE HEAVENS WHILE DRIVING
ON THE RING OF KERRY: CAHERDANIEL, COUNTY KERRY, IRELAND, 2018

....as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E Hughes

FRIENDSHIPS mean the world to us. Friends keep us feeling alive in so many ways. It's much more than knowing that they have our backs; it’s understanding why we will always have theirs. Friends keep us motivated and being the best that we can be....even though, some of our escapades show how naughty and fun-loving we actually are. This alone can make us feel tremendously alive. 

You can be yourself around your friends without a false face or pretext. Rather, showing genuine respect for each other with smiles, laughter, dreams, and memories thrown in for good measure. 

The best part about being a true friend is being there when your friend needs a helping hand; a listening ear. Perhaps a hug and shared tear or two denotes a unique understanding between you that nobody else is able to fully comprehend. Genuine warmth of words from the heart shared over the phone when you are living many miles apart can be like a full-blown hug to someone in need of your compassion and strength. 

My friends do mean the world to me. And, they know that I will always be there for them....in good times and in sad times, as well. 

Feel alive! Virtually hug a friend today and let them know how much you love them. I just did and, even though the tears do fall....we both truly know how important and comforting our friendship is to one another!

LOVE isn’t a word anyone of us should take lightly or for granted. Love is the gift of a strong feeling of affection and concern towards all fellow human beings. Love is about family, whether they are blood relatives or not. It is sharing a special affinity together due to respect for similar ideas and goals. Love is having a close friendship or relationship with others.

Having a strong sexual attraction towards someone often leads to physical expression of your love for them. To be swept off your feet by love and be able to bestow on one another the same strong affection and concern is a feeling to treasure for a lifetime.

The affectionate utterance of calling someone ‘a love’ is a term of endearment, sweet talk, and a sign of the tenderness and fondness you may have for them. Being human means we often display an intense and emotional attachment to something, as to a colorful, handmade quilt passed down from a cherished grandmother, or an adorable ‘fur baby’ (pet) who shares your domain and heart, as well. Think of a special place where you’d like to be at this very moment; a particular country, city, or favorite beach with sun-drenched sand tickling your toes as you stroll along the shoreline.

Love is feeling a devotion to something or someone whom you deem as a higher or greater part of yourself as God or a god. 

Buddhism, often known as a Path of Freedom, could equally be called the religion of love. One of the most rewarding spiritual practices is to cultivate the ability to bring love into all aspects of our life and to all the people we encounter. This entails learning how to include love’s presence while we speak to others, are in conflict with others, and are living with others. Often, this can be a daunting task, but, if achieved, the benefits of loving kindness are immeasurable.

HOPE, in reality, is another way of revealing how much trust and confidence you have in someone else and how this unshaken faith may be a determining factor in the positive aspect or outcome of your life. Hope is the longing or desire for something accompanied by the belief in the possibility of it successfully coming to pass. It is having faith in the possibilities of eventually achieving our dreams and desires for things we expect, long for, and aspire to. Hope is understanding that there is light at the end of the tunnel and soon, the light will, hopefully, shine down upon us.

Whether we believe it or not, hope is a part of everyone’s life. We all hope for something and it’s an inherent part of being human. It defines what we want in the future. Hope is part of the personal development regarding our lives that we all have running inside our heads on a constant basis. 

If you want something badly enough or deeply desire something to happen, you must have hope and faith in all of the factors that lead up to the final moment of truth. To have hope is to want an outcome that makes your life better in some way. Hope can not only help make a difficult scenario more tolerable, but it can improve our lives exponentially due to imagining a better future as it motivates us to take the direct steps to make it all happen.

A MOMENT OF ZEN 

Friendship, Love, and Hope are obtainable and available to everyone with an open heart and an open mind. If we have the freedom to choose the path we take in this lifetime and we incorporate friendship, love, and hope into this soul-searching itinerary, this trek will be our personal reality; our life fulfilling understanding of truth and faith in what is to come and what can and does shape our future. 

The only myth is that we do not have the freedom to follow our individual path filled with goodness, kindness, and an abundance of love. With free will and acceptance, we do!

The outcome of next week’s presidential election will determine whether or not we, as Americans, wish to improve our present lives by imagining a better future for everyone! If we strive to be the best that we can be, have a close and personal attachment to helping others obtain happiness, and truly want something badly enough, deeply enough, to make it happen—than a vote for the Biden/Harris ticket will help make it a reality. 

Let’s wipe-out the myth that the present administration consists of our friends who love us and hope to make our lives better. This idea could not be further from the truth, whether we choose to admit it or not. These past four years have more than proven this clear and present falsehood. Instead, let us adhere to the reality of a better outcome and a good life for all of the people.

PLEASE VOTE! Wear a mask when in public and take good care of yourselves and others.

Copyright © 2020 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved

Photo Copyright © 2020 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved

A STAR SHINES BRIGHTLY OVER ‘THE CITY OF LIGHT’

A series of essays....

LIGHTING A CANDLE SYMBOLIZES SAYING A PRAYER FOR SOMEONE

Courtesy Pinterest 

....as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E Hughes

The massive doors stood wide open as the young girl, walking behind her parents, enters the cathedral. She feels a bit strange and realizes she has been holding her breath since the sunny outside courtyard pushed her from behind into this darkened world of flickering candles and explosion of echoed whispers. The sudden darkness was making her head spin and eyes dilate in the struggle to adjust. She stops, momentarily, to gain her composure and learn how to breathe, once again. Exhale, inhale, exhale she tells herself. In all of her eleven years of life, she never expected to feel so unsettled and awestruck as she was at this very moment.

THE MASSIVE DOORS AND ORNATE
ARCHWAYS OF THE NOTRE DAME CATHEDRAL 

Courtesy hubpages.com

Her mother’s white sweater serves as a beacon of light and her lower body decides to rigidly move towards it, one small step at a time. Her eyes become more adjusted to the living shadows that crisscross before her in random patterns. It’s so dark, so dark, she thinks and moves in the direction of the table of tall, white candles with golden flames dancing like a hundred Tinker Bells before her eyes. The candlelight begins to provide a comforting, warm feeling and she moves closer to it while keeping the familiar sweater in sight.

The girl is greeted by an erratic wax landscape that thickly coats the metallic table standing a few feet away from her. The constant flow of melting wax reminds her of white lava flowing down a mountainside and then solidifies in dribs and drabs as it eventually cools down. Each white taper stands at least a foot tall and is nestled in its own holder keeping it upright while the wax flows down, down and coats the table with its pure whiteness.

Mom and dad stand head to head several feet away. Mom’s face looks very sad when dad whispers something into her ear and hugs her, gently. She shouldn’t feel sad. We’re here! We made it! 

TALL, WHITE TAPER CANDLES MADE OF
BEESWAX LIT IN HOMAGE OF LOVED ONES

Holding an unlit taper in her right hand, she drifts into a world of remembrances including the crazy view from the observation deck of the Tower the day before. Pictures she’d seen in books could never compare to the real deal; the flow of buildings as far as the eye could see that radiated out from its base and made her feel as dizzy as the height of the Tower itself did. Her eyes settling at the waistlines of most of the compacted crowd, feeling crushed alive as they pushed towards the elevators and their caged decent to ground level.

Sitting at the base of the Arch feeling hot and worn down, she recalls what seemed like an innumerable amount of cars racing around her, around the Arch, spewing gasoline fumes while looking like lost souls trying to find their way home. Dad taking touristy pictures of her wearing the black, woolen beret recently purchased at the shop on the corner. And, walking, walking with Mom and Dad around this enormous city filled with its August heat, foreign words, and virtual sea of people. She began to understand that the three of them were tourists (time travelers, if you will) who were in constant awe of the breadth and depth of this timeless city.

THE INNER BEAUTY OF NOTRE DAME,
AN ANCIENT CATHEDRAL 

THE SPIRITUAL WORLD OF
FLICKERING CANDLES AND ECHOED WHISPERS

Shaking herself back into the present, the girl knows why and for whom she is about to light her candle, say a small prayer for, and then place it among the hundreds of other souls now flickering in the holy darkness. She suddenly knows why her mother seemed so sad before and her father’s kind whisper was meant to soothe the hurt away.

Directing the wick towards another flickering light, suddenly her candle burst into the  golden flame that represents her own grandmother, her mother’s mother, who had passed away not long before. May her soul be lifted up to you, sweet God, and help my mom know that grandma is okay at your side. The girl did not like seeing her mother so sad. She thought about how much she loves and misses her grandma, too.

Walking around the end of the table, she quickly slips a one franc coin into the slit of the collection box. Snuggling between her parents, she wraps one small arm around each of their waists; her bright, white sneakers directing the threesome further into the depths of the Notre Dame Cathedral and the many layers of religion, culture, and history that has symbolized French identity for over 850 years. 

Please stay safe and think about a healthy future for everyone. VOTE!

OUT OF THE FLAMES—
SHE WILL RISE ONCE AGAIN!

               

Courtesy time.com

Copyright © 2020 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved

OCTOBER BEGINS AS A BLANK CANVAS

 

A series of essays....

THE VIBRANT COLORS OF OCTOBER

....as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E Hughes

September’s intense layers of green set the dramatic backdrop for the month of October.

October begins as a blank canvas. Finally, the tenth month of the year allows us to play with some of the richest, deepest, and most robust colors on a grand scale; earth tones, my Mother’s favorite palette. 

Early on, multiple shades of summertime greens are seemingly airbrushed overnight as the tops of the highest branches are tipped in mellow yellow against a sky of pale blue. Cotton ball clouds float along the blue skyscape like majestic swans on a sun-rippled pond.

APPLES READY FOR MARKET

Bright apple reds and greens cling to the orchard trees in great abundance waiting to fill the farmer’s baskets and bins to be hauled to local market places. Children and adults alike dream of their tasty sweetness as in taffy apples with sprinkles on top, rustic pies filled with rich fruit and cinnamon goodness, and a crisp, salubrious treat savored between meals.

Overnight, clumps of cherry-red leaves dot the mighty maple trees like giant Christmas ornaments hung by the gods. In the following days, each crimson bauble begins to seep through the lofty trees giving us a feeling of spilled red wine penetrating the green, summertime branches.

Late blooming flowers and rows of swaying grasses bow to one another as they dance under the influence of Vivaldi’s ‘The Autumn’ and their once sparkling attire now fades into nut-brown and sepia tones like photos tucked away in Mother’s dresser drawer. “Memories, my love,” she would whisper in my ear.

SHERBET TONES OF
THE CHRYSANTHEMUM

If we are passionate about chrysanthemums, cultivated for their brightly colored, showy flower heads, we must be enchanted by these vivacious mounds of sherbet tones dotting the urban landscape. Mums are reminders of man’s ability to prolong a season while planting seeds of hope for a ravishing display of future springtime bounties of color!

Some bushes literally ‘burn’ in crimson splendor as October ushers in her cooler temps and seasonal rains. And, as if overnight, trees have morphed into their final act of seasonal glory when the reds, golds, and yellows that have been dancing above us suddenly ruffle their united copper-colored leaves in the quickening breeze like the subdued plumage of a robin’s breast.

ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME?

Squirrels and chipmunks scurry about in a last minute rush of hoarding their food in anticipation of winter’s inevitable arrival. Blue Jays and Cardinals seemingly sashay in flight from one golden branch to another and the big, black-necked Canadien Goose, with its signature white chinstrap mark, checks his itinerary as he and thousands of ‘honkers’ migrate south for the winter.

OCTOBER DELIGHTS

October’s blank canvas is particularly notable this year with the coronavirus looming large among us. While summer activities begin to linger into precious memories, and jackets, long pants and boots are donned in lieu of bathing suits, shorts, and flip-flops, we still revel in being outdoors. Even when the daily wearing of facial masks become important substitutes for Halloween disguises at the end of the month, most of us have decided to cherish being around for a very long time to be able to delight in October’s colorful canvas for many years to come.

Blustery winds usher in October’s ‘snowy season.’ Crisp leaves tumble from the sky en masse simulating snow showers as they accumulate in thick layers on the ground, covering the weary grasses in a patchwork quilt of autumnal color. 

THE REDS OF THE MAPLE TREE
GENTLY SEEPING...

My Mother’s auburn hair resembled the fiery red maple tree that lived in the backyard of our little, white rental home many years ago. My October memories consist of numerous hours of raking the fallen leaves into enormous piles only to scatter them around again by running like a tiny, howling banshee into the pile at full speed. Mom helped rake them up again for round two and three of this pleasant game.

The orange, greens, and yellows of the local pumpkin patch fill adults and children with equal delight as the ‘perfect’ size and shape of pumpkin is searched for with grave intensity. After all, its flawlessness will serve to usher in the jack-o-lantern of our own imagination for the Halloween celebration.

OCTOBER’S COLORFUL
PUMPKIN PATCH

As if all of the sounds, visual changes, and weather extremes that take place during October were not enough, my heart delights in the autumnal celebration of a life gone way too early; a gentle lady who loved deeply and gave more than she would ever receive in this lifetime. Mom, sixty-two years was not nearly enough time to have the world appreciate all that you had to contribute to making this a sweeter, more loving place to live in. I miss you with all of my being...

MY BEAUTIFUL MOTHER, OLGA,
AT THE AGE OF EIGHTEEN

Today, you would have had 97 years filled with the gentleness of life behind you. Happy Birthday, Mom, with all of the trimmings and all of my love! My October canvas is filled with the colorful and joyous memories of your love, kindness and appreciation of all living things.

Everyone, please stay safe. Vote!

Copyright © 2020 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved

Photos Copyright © 2020 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved

AMERICAN RECKONING

“THE JUDGEMENT DAY” 
ARTIST: GIORGI KUKHALASHVILI

A series of essays....

Courtesy of Saatchi Art

....as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E Hughes  

According to the Bible and written within the New Testament, Judgement Day will be the day at the end of time, as we know it, following Armageddon when God will decree the fates of all individual humans according to the good and evil of their earthly lives. The Day of Reckoning: A time when the effects of one's past mistakes or misdeeds catch up with them.

A lawyer may refer to reckoning as a verbal summation before the jury. Wrapping-up is the directional approach to completing a day of filming in the entertainment industry. The sports announcer might be expressing his recap of a particular play on the field and later, after the game is over, his rundown of the completed event by highlighting the best of the action...in case we missed it. And, the news journalist is noted for her succinct style of writing which captures ‘Breaking News’ in a brief but highly comprehensive form. 

If and when the Day of Reckoning arrives, I would like to believe that my ultimate résumé is in order, neatly typed and displaying my background, skills, and accomplishments in order to secure the final and most important form of employment paid out in eternal joy and extreme happiness. 

In my estimation, America, and all that she stands for and for those whom she represents, is facing her most important day of reckoning on November 3rd. The results of this country’s Presidential Election 2020, provided on this date or shortly afterwards, will be the day the hands on the clock will either come to a complete stop, or continue to run in a precise and deliberate manner. We are facing the final days before our ‘American Reckoning’ and the prospects of its final result is scaring the living hell out of us (me)! 

The parish priest, dressed in his finest, most colorful and ornate chasuble for Sunday Mass, stands at the raised podium on the altar and sends shivers down a small child’s spine. He is preaching what will transpire on Judgement Day if we do not practice love, decency, and sound judgement during our life here on earth. We, naively (?), fail to recognize how many people do not own love for their fellow man, are not decent human beings, and do not practice sound judgement in their lives. This conclusion is what has taken us by surprise and catapulted sound reasoning and the state of normalcy into an entirely new dimension. 

Given the go-ahead and support needed to crawl out of the woodwork by the current administration, white nationalist groups espouse white supremacist or white separatist ideologies focusing on the alleged inferiority of nonwhites. Has ‘white privilege’ blinded us from seeing the truth we have lived with for hundreds of years? Simple truth has been given a blind eye for so long that we failed to recognize its nastiness creeping up out of the gutters like devious shadow beings obeying the written orders of condemned, old, white men. 

                                                                  LIFE IS FILLED WITH BEAUTY!

 

                                                                   

What were we thinking all of these years?

The Ku Klux Klan, neo-Confederate, neo-Nazi, racist skinhead, and Christian identity are described as white nationalists. Sadly, it takes another knee of a privileged white man pressed down on the neck of a black man until his life is extinguished for us to attempt to understand why Black Lives Matter. It takes a racist president hell-bent on power and superiority to open the cracks in the earth and release the hatred that has been bubbling below us all this time. 

Why was it so difficult to feel and label the pervasive unrest beneath our feet all along; rumbling like a massive earthquake too deep to break the crusty surface but disconcerting nonetheless? Now that our world is shaken and we’ve come to recognize the source of our fear (those set apart by their unmistakable facial characteristics and hateful expressions), we must not allow them to drive the rest of us into hell along with them on Judgement Day! 

Congress and the Department of Homeland Security, among others, have determined that domestic terrorism consists of acts or attempted acts of terrorism in which the perpetrators are citizens or permanent residents of the country in which the act takes place. White supremacists and other far-right-wing extremists are the most significant domestic terrorism threat facing the United States. 

We are living inside an American Tragedy but are slowly finding our way among the pervasive and widespread unrest and dissatisfaction brought about by the domestic terrorists attempting to tear us apart. We are learning what we can do to fight evil with good and are stepping-up to the plate when necessary. We are understanding that when we’re told that each one of our votes counts, it is the absolute truth. Our voices must be heard loud and clear because we will not take the bullying, hatefulness, and degradation any longer!

If we truly believe we’re strong enough to love rather than hate, demand decency and a good life for all of mankind, and rely on our own courage and perspicacity instead of seeing the world within the vision of a handful of others...we can take on this fight to retain democracy and our freedom. We just have to want it all badly enough. 

Let’s take advantage of these precious few days before our American Reckoning is upon us. Drive others to the polls or to the City Clerk’s office to drop-off their absentee ballot, offer to baby-sit for their children allowing them some spare time, and always offer encouragement so that voting feels like the right it is meant to be instead of a privilege for only a few. 

Stay safe and please be kind to others. Vote like your life depends on it because...it truly does.

Copyright © 2020 by Jacqueline E Hughes 

All rights reserved

ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE: CELEBRATING SEVEN AMBITIOUS YEARS!

A series of essays....

VISITING MOLLY GALLIVAN’S COTTAGE AND
TRADITIONAL FARM IN KENMARE, IRELAND

....as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E Hughes

Two years ago we were driving through, hiking deep into forests, absorbing every possibility within unforgettable cities, and enjoying the company of the locals from Edinburgh, Scotland and across the Irish Sea to Dublin City and over the mainland of Ireland to the Wild Atlantic Way! 

I’ve written about this particular trip quite often but, there are always many stories left to share and subtle nuances left open to personal interpretation by the four of us, lucky friends and travelers, who decided that sharing three weeks together, discovering more about each other, ourselves, incorporating new and familiar places into our itinerary, and creating lasting memories...were very good things to do.

Little did we know, back in those busy and amazing days of travel, that in a little over fourteen months time, the prospect of and privilege to be able to travel to other countries would be unavailable to us. The USA, along with the entire world, would become embedded in a new, harsh reality of epic proportions: The SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic. Today, the world has had to cope with over one million deaths due to this virtually unknown and deadly disease.

CONNEMARA NATIONAL PARK

NEAR BALLYCASTLE, IRELAND

Like many of us who enjoy a ‘flight into a fresh adventure,’ right now we must cling to our memories and photos. We must stay healthy and keep others healthy, as well, yet remain diligent when it comes to dreaming about a future filled with more exciting and bold experiences. Now is an opportune time to sketch or paint one of your favorite moments from a previous escapade. Write a poem or a short story about your trips. Or, pursue the possibility of creating a novel based upon your time spent in a different place, within a new culture while living among the people who inhabit these special spaces. Pick-up that musical instrument you’ve been longing to learn how to play...if you only had the time. Well, now you do. Remember, anything is possible if we choose to make it happen.

Seven years ago, in September of 2013, Dan and I had just returned from another special visit to the Wild Atlantic Way along the West Coast of Ireland when I decided that all of our amazing experiences required a greater audience to share them with. We climbed a mountain that trip, for goodness sakes! Climbing to the peak of Diamond Hill was highly noteworthy in my opinion. This idea helped create the birth of my Moving On...(insert year) Blog site. I entwined my words with the photography I’d taken along my adventures and created a colorful marriage between them, meant to be read and enjoyed by anyone and all who wished to tune-in to the segments of life that gave me so much excitement and lasting pleasure.

ADRIAN O’CONNOR AND ME...
HE IS ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS FOR
BEGINNING  MY BLOG SEVEN YEARS AGO

CRAGGY ISLAND B&B IN DOOLIN, IRELAND
WHERE WE FIRST MET ADRIAN

So, this month I am very proud to mark today’s post as the 330th published story in my little series of “essays as seen through my eyes.” Cue the balloons, confetti, and cake, please!

It takes a little while to grow-up, mature, and find your way into whatever you do in this life. It has been no different while watching my blog weave its way into a combustible world made-up of cyber populous and opinion. However, even the ‘growing pains’ have been enlightening and most encouraging. If I thought that simply setting-up my site on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest was a hefty challenge, it was soon to be discovered that keeping it there was the greater confrontation, especially within the past four or more years of intense cyber control (hacking) by foreign entities. 

Due to the fact that the original format for the Blog itself, travel writing, has morphed into so much more, like sharing my thoughts about life’s challenges, the need for more love expressed in our lives, experimentation with different writing styles and mediums, stories about lives past and present, and the inevitable and consuming passion I have for today’s political scene, I am very pleased. I often say that the enjoyable part of each week is sitting quietly, eyes generally closed, and contemplating what to write about for a Thursday morning publication. And, yes, I have been known to get out of bed at three in the morning to go write down ideas I had either been dreaming about, or ones that kept me from falling asleep in the first place. 

“WE MADE IT!” TO THE SUMMIT
OF DIAMOND HILL IN CONNEMARA 
NATIONAL PARK...

I love and thoroughly enjoy the freedom of having a weekly Blog! What better way to get things off of my chest (without harming anyone else), and express the pure joy that living life to its fullest has to offer us. For this freedom of expression alone, I am eternally grateful. However, the fallout from this freedom has been having my Facebook Author and Writer’s Pages taken off by the powers that be with nary an explanation as to precisely why! If you happen to be checking the contents of this post my Facebook editors, please make the time to answer my inquiries and tell me whom I have offended. I guess we will always be just one click away from or own obscurity...if we choose to give anything that much power over us. There will always be ‘other fish in the sea,’ as the old saying goes.

In a pandemic world we must plan our days accordingly: Which day to visit the grocery store, when it’s the best time to catch-up on the news or shows we’ve previously recorded, or how many hours we must set aside to work on the total amount of words we must write for that day. Anyway, this happens to be my world right now. For writers everywhere who are taking advantage of this solitary time to complete the next chapter in your life’s story, be grateful for this mandatory isolation. We have been afforded the ideal scenario to do what we do best while caring about the safety of others at the same time. 

May this post serve to wish our friends, Marsha and Michael, a very happy two-year anniversary of time well spent together in the monumental settings of Scotland and Ireland. Unforgettable, indeed! My persistence and love for the written word is celebrated, as well as I note the last seven years of weekly essays written on my trusty i-Pad(s) just for you, my faithful readers. It has been a pleasure sharing my personal thoughts with you and, with any luck, I will continue to be around doing this for many years to come. Thank you for ‘The Read,’ ‘The Insightful Comments,’ and ‘The Many Shares’ along the way.

Stay healthy and safe. I am hoping that Tuesday night’s Presidential Debate has not left an indelible black mark on your soul. If anything, it’s explained how important it is for everyone to go out and make your vote count!

Copyright © 2020 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved

Photo Copyright © 2020 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved