Bear with me. I'm trying to get over a serious case of the blues since I got back from Ireland. It's almost a relief to call it blues. I can now distinguish this from depression. There were many times when I couldn't. So the blues it is and it lingers, I am melancholy for my tribe, my people.
Why the blues, you ask?
Well, it was the trip of a lifetime to the home of my birth, Ireland. Cork. I'm back nearly 5 days and it's taken me this long to write about it, apart from the Hydrange post.
Don't you just love it when families can slay their individual dragons and angst and disputes and rivalries, and just be together in harmony, laughter, joy and love. And that's what's happened in my family of origin - complete with cousins and visits to our matriarch in her "rest home". She's now 95 and not quite with us but delighted with us, ordering tea like a grand dame and telling us of an aging male pursuer - "once you're gone I'm going to take the time to wring his neck!"
Her strong spirit lives on and heartens my sister and me as we hug and kiss her in farewell.
We quote her to each other as we leave and howl with laughter as we rehearse the phrase, with her intonation, for when our own time comes. Yes, one gets to that stage of not fearing the outer realms of old age. I know it's left me. It can't be that bad when one can repeatedly order tea with one bright scarlet-tipped finger raised imperiously now can it?
There's a lot to be said for getting together with your close family members and finding out that all the grudges you carried disappear as snow for the sun, because they only existed in your imagination. You forgot about all the other wonderful stuff that makes you a closely knit family.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, sometimes what we think is a depression only really is the blues and we must embrace them. They have a function in out lives too.
Right on Irene, the blues make us ready to see the golds more clearly.
ReplyDeleteLife is too short for grudges and estrangements, I savour each moment I've had in the past few weeks. Precious.
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Our "matriarch" is 91 years old and still fending them off. She says she tried marriage once and that was enough for her.
ReplyDeletelovely- thanks for sharing this.
ReplyDeletenicely done...and indeed thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteCalling for tae and cake in the room.... that is the way to do it!
ReplyDeleteGlad you are home safe once more,. You were missed. I am in in Elly's tonight being pampered. We are so fortunate to have family who care about us.
The core of my family lives in Chennai. Like you, my brother who lives in London and I look forward to our annual visit to Chennai to catch up with our siblings, cousins, inlaws and friends and on return to base, both of us feel kind of empty for a few days. Then the needs of just living one day at a time get us out of our blues till we do it all over again!
ReplyDeleteFamilies are funny. So often fractured by bad feeling and resentment, but a source too of deep satisfaction and meaning you'll get nowhere else. Welcome back.
ReplyDeleteHattie:
ReplyDeleteI would love her!
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Kathie:
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, thanks for visiting!
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Poga:
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome!
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Ramana:
ReplyDeleteThanks for understanding, I'm back on the ramparts again now!
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Stan:
ReplyDeleteOh there's a bit of that too, but fortunately missing from this trip home. Nothing is perfect but this came close!
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GM:
ReplyDeleteSay hi to Elly for me and I am delighted you are being pampered. As you should be.
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Love your
ReplyDeletesharing...
Thank you Ernestine, and I of course adore yours!
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