WHAT IS BEAUTY?

 

A series of essays….

TAKEN NEAR STIRLING CASTLE IN SCOTLAND.
I FIND TRUE BEAUTY IN HONORING THE LIVES THAT 
PRECEDED ME AND CONSIDER CEMETERIES 
VERY ENDEARING AND BEAUTIFUL.

….as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E Hughes

When I began my Blogging career over ten years ago, I was a bastion for all ideas past, current, and future that related to anything regarding the travel life. I was out of the league of a Samantha Brown, but I held the travel bug deep inside me and called on the beauty of travel to guide me through its inner landscape and feel comfortable sharing my personal experiences with readers like you.

This particular trip to The Wild Atlantic Way of Ireland was our fourth as we continued to work our way north along the coast and the outstanding beauty of Western Ireland. Four years before, traveling with friends, I’d booked a two night stay at Craggy Island B&B in Doolin and Dan and I became friends with the owners, Adrian O’Connor and his extremely kind wife, Bev.

Irish traditional music has been a central part of life in this area of County Clare for many years and Doolin has become known as the traditional music capital of Ireland. Our host was an essential component of this vibrant music scene throughout the year and played various instruments with other local musicians in all three pubs in Doolin. Adrian created and produced his own music and contributed a haunting CD which we gladly purchased to bring back home.

ADRIAN’S LOVE FOR DOOLIN SHINES THROUGH

The enlightening music that he composed and for which he was loved and known for suddenly became a part of us and was instantly embedded in our hearts. We realized that we were being called to his music and willingly traveled the path it had taken us on. As in his music and the poetry within his music, I have always likened this enlightenment to literature and ask, why do we read books? And the most simple and direct answer is always, because that is where the wisdom is. Wisdom and pure emotion is in Adrian’s music.

Since meeting Adrian and Bev and sharing the fullness of their lives, we knew that life itself would never be the same. Life was richer now; so full and complete it was almost exotic, in a sense. 

The Burren, the villages of Lisdoonvarna (home of the Matchmaking Festival each year) and Ballyvaughan, Cliffs of Moher, and Doolin itself, one of the last stops before sailing out to the amazing Aran Islands, County Clare and its people have so much to give and we were the willing recipients of all this area had to offer. By the time we came back to Ireland in 2010 to rent a small cottage north of Galway City, we’d heard that Adrian’s health had been severely compromised. We took a chance and stopped by Craggy Island on our way back to Shannon Airport with the hope of talking with him, once again.

This beautiful man, pounds lighter, more frail, but without having lost any of his innate vibrancy, greeted us with grace and charm and invited us in for coffee. Many of us had asked him to create another CD, more beautiful music, but his illness was too strong to have him comply. He did, however, claim his Irish Uilleann pipes and played us several songs while we sat out soaking up the warm, Irish sunshine.

ADRIAN GETTING READY
TO PLAY HIS UILLEANN PIPES

ADRIAN AND ME AT CRAGGY ISLAND B&B

Bev, a nurse, was at work and Adrian promised to give her hugs from us upon her return home knowing that she would be disappointed having missed us. 

In September of 2018 we had set-up a visit with Adrian and Bev in Doolin. We were traveling with good friends and were delighted to share our Irish friends, the trad music, and the warmth of Gus O’Connor’s Pub with Michael and Marsha. Surreal might be the best way to describe this beautiful evening; the perfect mix of fact and fantasy! The inner landscape of beauty that pulled us in and surrounded all of us with its deep, lasting love can be conjured up each time I think about that night. It will, gladly, stay with me throughout my lifetime.

So, if you should ask me the question, what is beauty?, I would reply, that magical night in Doolin, for certain. I would be quick to add the images of our daughters and grandchildren, new buds on the trees, a rolling Yorkshire landscape, poetry read aloud for all to absorb, our dog named Bree, any and all music that stirs the soul and puts a swing in your step. Beauty is everything you want it to be and even…nothing at all; the blank slate of pure emptiness when we close our eyes and all is silent, all is still.

BEV AND ME CATCHING UP WITH LIFE

 BEV, ADRIAN AND ME AT GUS O’CONNOR’S 
PUB IN DOOLIN IN 2018

MINE WERE TEARS OF JOY WHILE TALKING
WITH MY FRIEND AND HERO, ADRIAN O’CONNOR

The late Irish philosopher, poet, and author, John O’Donohue, writes about beauty from every aspect in his book of the same name and asserts that beauty is a gentle but urgent call to awaken and celebrates it as a homecoming of the human spirit. Beauty is the hope we should never relinquish. O’Donohue opens our eyes, hearts, and minds to the wonder of our own relationship with beauty by exposing the infinity and mystery of its breadth. He reveals how beauty’s invisible embrace invites us toward new heights of passion and creativity even in these uncertain times of global conflict and crisis.

The word glamour does not apply here. Its superficial and exciting attractiveness is usually associated with striking physical beauty, luxury, or celebrity. Love, kindness, hopefulness, joy, and contentment define much deeper forms of beauty and personal satisfaction.

In early September of last year, we met a couple while having a drink in a hotel bar in Burford, a beautiful village in The Cotswolds Hills of England. They popped over from Chipping Camden, just up the road, to enjoy dinner and a night out.

We talked about travel, life experiences, and everything that made us truly happy. I told of our friendship with Adrian O’Connor in Ireland. Dan, phone at the ready, looked Adrian up to show them who he was and relay his ties to trad music considering our new acquaintances were in the music business, as well.

Sadly, we discovered that Adrian had recently passed away from the cancer that ultimately consumed him. Had beauty failed us, lost forever by the absence of this man, our friend? Tears arrived later that evening as Dan and I reminisced about the many years we shared Adrian with the world. Instinctively, we knew that the beauty he represented within our lives had actually expanded, released into the entire world for all to cling to, rejoice in, and immortalize for all of eternity.

Adrian’s death was a call to be awakened. We knew we must celebrate his passing as a homecoming of the human spirit. His life, his story, would offer all who knew him the comfort and hope required to carry on and pass the beauty we knew in this world on to everyone else. Your kindness, Adrian, will be remembered and passed down through your spirit to all who knew you and all who find solace in good people who care about others and set positive examples for us to follow.

Copyright © 2024 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved

Photos Copyright © 2024 by Jacqueline E Hughes 

All rights reserved