Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The land...

The beauties of Northern Ireland are simply, and please ignore, the cliché, breathtaking. I am amazed daily at the natural splendor in which I am being allowed to live and learn. I have awakened every morning to the beautiful sunshine of the Northern sky greeting my tired eyes. I sit in class, discussing great Irish poets and playwrights, while watching our small bay fill with the water of the Irish Sea. The sun glints off of the water, sometimes blinding those sitting opposite the window in the lecture house. The Murron Mountains greet my eyes morning and evening in their immensity and grandeur. They have become a faithful and constant friend. Sometimes their peaks are shrouded and swallowed in cloud, preventing full perspective, but the mist creates its own beauty and mystery.
The Irish Sea coast is but a walk or a bike ride away from our homes and the path to its shores evokes awe and wonder, without fail. The wildlife that greets you along the way to the beach often makes me smile in amused humor. The seagulls sing to my heart and the oddly placed cows dot the path and the road along the way. The latter creatures often prove to make the journey to the beach rather interesting: sometimes blocking the road or simply making funny noises in greeting.
Riding along in a car offers the viewers the picturesque images that are common to anyone pondering the landscape of Northern Ireland. The Green pasture lands are endless and beautiful. Plots of land are separated by stone walls or green hedges, providing the farm land common to Ireland. Cows, sheep and various other livestock graze and feed on the luscious, green grass. The sun plays off of the land and through the trees, creating a magical effect, almost any time of the day.
The beauty of this land is not able to be captured in mere words. Sight and memory are far better tools, but I must attempt with my weak words to communicate God's beauty and glory in the creation in this place...

1 comment:

GLB said...

wow....I want to go.