Yesterday was a powerful day. We went to Belfast, Northern Ireland to the US Embassy. I have wanted to go back to Ireland several times since my first trip 5 years ago, and this was a wonderful excuse for us all to have an adventure together. I had no idea what an intense day it would be.
As a prelude, I will share that I have a love affair with hands. I love mine, those of other adults, artists, performers. old people, babies, certainly those of children. They evoke a myriad of emotion in me, from laughter to wonder. I have spent many hours watching dancers, musicians, and sculptors perform their art. As a child, I spent countless hours at my kitchen table, doing homework and watching my grandmother's hands as she kneaded homemade bread. It is a fascination that is almost subconscious now. I always watch hands, as much as I watch people's eyes. I love the creative energy so often expressed to greater and lesser amounts, by the way someone moves their hands.
We started off with a wakeup at 2:30 AM to catch the earliest ferry from a lovely little town at the southern tip of Scotland, called Stranraer.(pronounced strahn-rhah) The sound of the word has been mesmerizing my ear since the first time I heard it said.... it felt entrancing somehow. It was my first time on a large ferry, and I was as excited as a child going to a circus. We were lucky enough to have many hands together to help us get ready.... to make coffees, iron clothes, wash the car, and hug us on to a good day.
The ferry crossing was an adventure. Alix, who does all of the driving at this point, did her usual marvelous job of getting us there in record time. Driving with her has been a grand adventure since my first time in the car with her. She delights in mischievously telling the story of how much I was affected by driving on the opposite side of the road while first here. It was most obvious with a truck in Edinburgh coming up the road, and me thinking it was going to hit us. Alix still laughs about how I almost ended up in her lap, trying to jump away from it!
We had breakfast on the ferry, chatting a bit to the lovely man who prepared it. When we landed, the first order of business was to find the American Embassy before the time of our appointment, so we were sure to get there on time. It was tantalising to drive through Belfast just a bit, and look forward to exploring more later that day.We found it in record time.... with enough time to spare to venture a bit further to get a cup of tea. We ended up at a little convenience store stocked with goods from a bakery that smelled wonderful.
One cup of tea later, we were snoozing for a catch-up on the sleep we had not gotten. Alix curled up with her legs across my lap and had a good snooze after we all chatted about the ferry and where we should explore. While I was in the shop, I was struck by the young woman stocking one of the shelves with some of the savory baked goods... She used her hands very gently and gracefully, arranging the pastries in a pretty pattern to show them off. She caught me looking at her and shared a shy smile at my recognition of her artistry.
After the appointment at the Embassy, we set off exploring by car. We all had heard about how much strife Belfast had endured. It was hard to imagine, as we drove through a decidedly wealthy area of town, and we wondered where there would be historical information and perhaps memorials to the past. Looking it up on Alix's iPhone as we wandered, we compared stories of what we had heard. It's truly amazing to see how much information is filtered and disseminated differently on both sides of the 'pond'... very differently presented, slanted, and certainly received. I remembered wondering about that after 9/11, when some people even here in the USA felt it had not affected them since they lived in the Midwest... not close at all. Yet the world has never been the same for so many of us.
We went a bit further and were in a neighborhood markedly less affluent. As we drove, I was struck by the number of tributes to different people involved in 'the troubles' in the form of street art on the walls of buildings. It was thankfully quiet but we could feel that we were in an area that still had defensive energy all around it. There were more barricaded windows and doors... and lots and lots of houses and businesses for sale. When we looked a few streets behind the one we drove on, we could see very high walls with barbed wire... or walls we couldn't see through at all. The energy of the neighborhood felt heavier and grayer, despite the people walking around doing their daily business of life. Hands... hands everywhere... the man washing the windows and wall of his corner shop, women pushing baby carriages, lovers hugging. Neighborhood life, no different than in any other city yet energetically marked by being now being in the Catholic section of Belfast, which felt like a "lesser than" area. Not because of it's people or its buildings, both sweetly maintained and spotless ... but because it had been and still was the underdog, and less free most definitely.
We found our way to the sections where the barbed wire was, and saw several badly gutted areas with lots of leftover rubble, getting grown over with weeds. The most poignant sight to me was seeing the now permanently open gates... walls really, that had been enclosing people at night when there was more strife. I was glad to see them propped open and rusty, but the images of them closing off streets was claustrophobic and all too real for me. Here too, hands had been raised in anger and hatred against each other and it still could be felt as a part of this area's history and present life.
I have family in Israel and hear stories of the strife there. I am unhappy at much of what the Israeli government does to and with the Palestinians. Alix, Julia and Pam were indignant at what was done by their British government, purportedly representing and reflecting them, to the people of this island. Yet what the Palestinians and the Catholic Irish did in return was no less reprehensible or justifiable.
This felt the same to me... people hurting each other with no real solution to be seen.
We all only hope for a compromise and peace that lasts.
We left to find a very late lunch, and some gentler energy. I was very glad to have seen what I had, and now especially glad to go to a more relaxed state of being. We found a lovely cafe, and sat outside to enjoy watching such a very different panorama. Lots of people, with happily relaxed energy were shopping in Belfast's vigorously growing downtown section. It felt so familiar, like being 'in town' in Philadelphia, PA.
We went shopping after our coffee and tea and were thrilled to find pyjamas.... after all, they are our favourite work clothes and at this point our mascot outfit for ourselves as well! I had tried to find some new ones in the States as well as a few shops in Scotland, and they weren't displayed anymore, so finding these was a delight. They are warm flannel in very happy and cheerful prints and colors, and each came wrapped in a lovely long ribbon. I am SO happy with us all having them!
As the day wore on, we tiredly and thankfully explored the area of the city that used to house several potteries. Although we were disappointed not to find the soba noodle bar that Alix's GPS system said was close, and the Apple iPhone corroborated as being there, we ended up in a lovely restaurant with Turkish style alcoves that we could nest in. It was the perfect space for us to relax in for awhile.
As I curled up in the corner, looking at the faces of these three incredibly special people, once again I found myself watching their hands. Some people doodle with their hands, drawing bits and pieces. I doodle mentally, as I watch people's hand-ballet while they are making their coffees, eating, or rubbing their faces as they chat.
We drove back to the ferry station early, hoping to rest a bit in the car until it left. We knew we would be arriving home very late, and cuddling in a bit sounded wonderful. We got to the station very quickly and snuggled in, laughing and playing and looking at what we had purchased. We took the pyjamas out of their bag, and played with the ribbons they came wrapped in. It was fun giggling as we were tying them around our heads like girls from the 1950's in the US or hippies from the 1960's.
As I saw my hands tying a playful ribbon hippie-style bow around my head, I had a flash of them tying yet another ...many years ago, around the tree in the front yard of my house. That time it was to signify a prayer for peace and the safe return of soldiers during another conflagration in the Middle East.
With a bit of reverence, I finished tying this day's bow.I tied it slowly, holding today's memories close to me, with a blessing that peace prevailed on Earth.
Everywhere on Earth, no matter who, no matter where...and somehow, hoping for the gift of how.........
Maybe, just maybe, as more people connect as the four of us have, via this electronic magic of the internet and Apple videochats, we can gather around tables all over, laughing at our differences and enjoying learning just how similar we really are.
I am so lucky to have just gotten the Mobile broadband card from Sprint when I did!!
