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

STAMINA: A REQUIRED AESTHETIC FOR THE NEW YEAR

 A series of essays.....

TAKING PICTURES AFTER CLIMBING HIGH ABOVE
CONNEMARA NATIONAL PARK IN IRELAND: 2013

.....as seen through my eyes!

By: Jacqueline E. Hughes

All I want for Christmas is enough stamina to get me through the end of 2017 and thrust me head first into the new year, 2018. 

For some, the wish may be to rectify an old, nasty habit (i.e. stop smoking) in order to change their life for the better. And, for others, it might be the acquisition of a large, shiny new toy such as a bright red,Tesla Roadster....for example. Just saying. Whatever it might be, it’s more than likely out of their range of possibility, anyway. 

But, on my ‘wish list’ there is one thing and one thing only: More stamina!

If I were an endurance runner, I would hope that my body would physically be prepared to withstand hardship and stress and I would mentally be capable of tolerating unfavorable environmental conditions to the point that, eventually, I would not shut down and could competently go on to endure these hardships facing me with discipline and courage. Even if I fail to cross the finish line for some unimaginable reason, I would consider myself a winner having worked so hard for so long and with so much at stake.

Well, that’s exactly what we are running every single day of our lives folks, the ultimate endurance race! 

Let’s ask ourselves a few questions:

After working so hard all my adult life, will the money placed into Social Security by myself and my employers throughout the years be taken away by greedy politicians?

Will the Greatest Nation in the world be reduced to blithering rubble by having introduced a vile, corrupt, evil, and dangerous administration into the White House bent on enhancing its own individualistic desires under the obscure and inappropriate label of ‘making us great again?’

Why has the basic advancement of beauty, progress, goodness, light, and love of the past eight years been diminished to the point of grotesque hatred of all things wholesome, solid, and nourishing to our world and being taken away from us simply because they are wholesome, solid, and nourishing?

What will be the legacy that we pass down to our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren? 

GREETING BRENNA ELIZABETH,
  MY FIRST GRANDCHILD
 

Will we have the stamina to fight back, resist, and return our country to the right path of leadership as we attempt to revert what’s currently ripping us apart by greed, corruption, hatred, and power? I certainly hope so. But, it’s going to take a lot of discipline, endurance, and stamina by all of us who are capable of observing this corrupted ‘freak show’ going on in Washington D.C. and utilize our endless courage to combat it, together!

There cannot be a compromise of values here. There are way too many lives at stake. Can you even imagine what we’d all be saying within our small pockets of close neighbors and friends if another so-called progressive country proclaimed a grave taxation on those earning the equivalent of ten thousand dollars per year and, at the same time, promised a large tax break to those within the highest income bracket? Then, they take away their health insurance and tell them that they’re not worthy of living a normal, comfortable life of having solid employment, being able to place food on the family table every day, being protected from an unforeseen health crisis, or, in general.....living a basic, happy life! The conversation at the proverbial water cooler would be buzzing and many of us, not too long ago, would be saying how this could never happen here. We’re safe.

It is happening here!! Within our presence and with such gusto that our heads are spinning around so fast we could all resemble extras in the 1973 horror movie 'The Exorcist.' False truths, fictitious reasoning, and pure hatred inundate our senses and come in great waves like the roiling sea in an approaching storm. And, this strategy is exactly what the Trump administration is employing in its attempt to break down our reserves, grate at our happiness, and divide us in every imaginable way possible. Remember that a divided nation is a weakened nation. Plain and simple. If we are weakened we are more susceptible to corruption in all of its forms, domestic or foreign.

I know you hear this saying over and over again these days and I do, too. However, I believe it to be solid truth in all of its many forms: Life is way too short for all of this crap! Never have truer words been spoken! You probably recall your grandmother or mom telling you that it takes less energy and fewer muscles to smile than it does to wear a frown on your face. If we translate that into love vs. hate.....well, you see where I’m going with this, right? 

The Buddhist philosophy explains how we must never take anything for granted and every act we make should be one filled with goodness and understanding of everything that surrounds us and is within us. There is no discrepancy between the color of your skin, how much money you make, what god you choose to believe in or not believe in at all, or how we choose to live our lives in time, space, love of another, or degrees of happiness. 

As individuals, we are our own keepers and should strive to conduct ourselves as ‘equal opportunity’ members of the human race. Just as evil can easily spread among people of a nation through their weakness and vulnerability, try to imagine the ‘power of love‘ that can be created by the sharing of light, goodness, understanding, and beauty. Of course you can because we'd been experiencing it throughout the entire eight years of the Obama administration.

So, there you have it. Twisting evil back into goodness takes immeasurable amounts of stamina! 

Repairing the crumbling infrastructure of our country, in terms of Washington D.C. and our current system of politics, as well as our bridges and roads, will become our greatest tasks after this administration is, finally, gone. We're going to require a lot of stamina for this one!

In 2017 we have all been training for the longest, hardest, and most important endurance race of our lives. Our first challenge is to accept what is wrong and consciously decide how to rectify it. Next, we prepare our minds and bodies to withstand the hardship and stress that clusters around us like evil spirits and we assess our options. Then, only as a unified body, can we begin to take-on the divisive hate rhetoric that the Trump regime has been working on and pulling-off for the last several years.

Raising a child may take a village, however...taking back our country from the hands of corruption will take every man, woman, and child (because they are the future) working long and hard together as a single entity, for one all important purpose....Our Freedom! 

ROBERT MUELLER:
APPOINTED SPECIAL COUNSEL TO
OVERSEE RUSSIA PROBE

Passing out gifts of ‘stamina’ to Robert Mueller and his staff of prosecutors who have been enduring this battle for many weeks now, as well as to all of the hardworking people within the United State’s Congress and Senate who have been leading a good fight and doing a magnificent job with what little they often have to work with in order to staunch the tide of such an evil and corrupt administration. Believe me when I say that most of us are profoundly grateful to all of you. Please, for the sake of each and every one of us, keep up your good work!

Resist!

Copyright 2017 by Jacqueline E. Hughes

All rights reserved