My three Irelands
Last year when I came to Spain, I heard the call of Ireland. Very strongly. I ended up not going there. It was my first visit to Spain after I moved to New Zealand, six years before, and it was time to take it easy, to come back to my roots, to spend time with family, to connect and reconnect with friends. So I didn’t go to Ireland.
But the call was even stronger when this year I bought my tickets to Europe. Budapest and Lake Balaton to meet an outstanding group of people working under and for self-management principles. An emergent gathering organised by Social Fokus and Enspiral, to experience rural co-working and co-living, a Summer Office concept that I embrace from now on!
Back to Ireland. I simply listened and bought my tickets. Had absolutely nothing planed and actually wanted to flow. And so I did. And Ireland received me with ease and synchronicity and serendipity.
I experienced three Irelands:
Ireland 1 — The natural green Ireland that connects me with New Zealand, and with myself, that grounds me and uplifts me. That makes me feel alive and in my body. The Ireland of cliffs, sand and rocks, green hills, inviting forests, and the strangest volcanic formations (or).
Ireland 2 — The Middle Ages Ireland. The dark and dense Ireland that makes me connect with the shadow, with pain and solitude and darkness. With wounds, both mine and collective. Here I connected with the pain of the monk who lived in loneliness due to his lack of capacity to love others just as they are. This is the Ireland that makes me face and go through all these wounds, so to transform them to allow me to connect with the third Ireland.
Ireland 3 — The Ancient Ireland. The very ancient one, like 5,000 years old. Here I was given the gift of the energy of playfulness, of lightness and joy and ease. The old and the new, simply the same. This is the Ireland that maintains that energy of playfulness beneath layers of anger and rage, because of the abuse, the misuse and the complete lack of understanding. That was my farewell gift, and with that energy of playfulness, I left and it stays with me.
