Another Irish Musing: Life Imitates...

Have you noticed that when we get away from our normal surroundings or out of our comfort zone:

• We pay attention a little more. 
• We notice things that are not familiar.
• We don't necessarily know what to say or do. 

It is as if our autopilot is turned off, and we are required to Respond rather than React.

This is one reason why I enjoy traveling outside my neighborhood and city -- I am challenged to think and feel!

What do you imitate?
(Photo:  Entrance to Pub-Gallery,
Belfast, Ireland - Larry Gardepie)

An Irish Pub -- of all places! -- helped me to come to terms with expressions of familiarity and differences.  This particular pub had an outdoor art gallery filled with provocative paintings:  that is, the art pieces provoked feelings of closeness and intimacy to what I knew and understood... AND... they invited a new way of seeing or understanding the world.

For instance, as we entered the outdoor patio, the four corners displayed the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Conquest or Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death).  Looking closer at the people on the horses were figures of Kim Jong Un (representing Pestilence), Ali Khamenei (War), Donald Trump (Famine), and Vladimir Putin (Death).

What are you hungry for?
(Photo:  Great Famine Stained Glass Window,
Belfast City Hall - Larry Gardepie)

Whether I agreed with or believed in the artist's message didn't matter: the art was an expression of another person's views that provoked me to think. 

The Belfast City Hall was another location filled with artwork and stained-glass windows.  One window in particular provided color to the Great Famines of the mid-1800s - part of the Irish history that lives on in their stories and ballads.

It was a reminder that our stories and histories intertwine as we live daily what is familiar... AND... move through Life's travels and broader realities. 

How do you add color to this world?
(Photo:  Stained Glass Windows, St. Patrick's Cathedral,
Dublin, Ireland - Larry Gardepie)

The openness to experience and understand another perspective may be part of Life's Goal: recognizing that our limited time and place can only be expanded by listening, dreaming, and accepting Other.

Larry Gardepie

Dialogue San Diego Consulting

 

 

Another Irish Musing: Seeing Anew

Our Dublin local guide was excited about showing us this one window in a posh neighborhood of Ireland's capital city.  We were in for a surprise!

Apparently, a stuffed lion showed up in this €1,000,000 ($1.7 million USD) flat a few weeks back.  After all, how many people have a lion in the window?!

When do you expect to see the unusual?

(Photo: "How Much is that Doggy
in the Window?" - Larry Gardepie) 

What she didn't expect was the tiny dog in the window.  At first the dog also looked stuffed... a strange juxtaposition against the lion ... but, after a few minutes, the dog suddenly moved!

It made for a fun moment on our final full day in Ireland, the land of leprechauns, faeries, and "wee spirits":  what we expect to see is not always what we see!

How can you see something anew?

(Photo:  Blarney Castle through a Hole
in the Obelisk - Larry Gardepie)

This can be said of each moment of our day:

• We make plans... and then the plans need to change;
• We create To Do Lists... and nothing seems to get done;
• We focus our energy on helping others... and they hardly seem to notice.

Similar to the doggie in the window, the question becomes one of presence and paying attention.  The dog was so focused on people passing by that we misunderstood what we were seeing.  Once the dog moved, our understanding shifted.

Can you reach across what divides?

(Photo: "Hand from the Sea" sculpture, 
Waterford, Ireland - Larry Gardepie)

The "Hand from the Sea" sculpture at the confluence of the Johns and Suir Rivers in Waterford, Ireland, depicts a hand reaching out from the sea and another hand reaching from nature (or the sky).  One is intertwined with seaweed and fish; the other has branches and birds.

It shows that we can come from different parts of the world... intertwined with our familial or cultural importances... and still touch one another.

This is what is important... the newness... the unexpected... the reaching out and touching another being.  It's the meeting where We-They are joined In-The-Moment.

Are you ready to See Anew this week? 

Larry Gardepie

Dialogue San Diego Consulting

 

 

More Irish Musings: Life Among the Ruins

Several friends and their families have been journeying through health issues these past several months:  cancer treatments, hospital stays, rehabilitation... and, for a few, final days.  It's difficult to grapple with mortality, especially since so much of our lives have ignored this all-too-human reality.

We notice the decline in our abilities, and we wonder when we became mortal.  How can we support one another in these moments of vulnerability?

Where do you find support?

(Photo: Round Tower and Headstones,
Glendalogh Monastery, Ireland - Larry Gardepie)

As our tour group traveled south from Dublin to the Wicklow Mountains on our last day in Ireland, I was holding these friends in prayer.  It seemed a fitting reflection on this final day on this journey.  Our destination: Glendalough Monastery, established over one thousand years ago by St. Kevin.  He wanted to live apart as a hermit, but his holiness soon attracted men and women from the surrounding areas who wanted to live in community.

When we arrived, hundreds of people were already walking among the ruins of these monastic grounds.  But, even with all these fellow travelers, the place was peaceful, holy, and contemplative.

What do you seek?

(Photo:  Markers and Headstones,
Glendalough Cemetery - Larry Gardepie)

The grounds were a photographer's paradise!  So many beautiful angles and sights:  moving slowly, changing direction, Noticing Life among the Headstone-Reminders of Life Gone -- flowers, rolling hills, babbling streams, bees and butterflies...  Life among the Ruins!

In the monastery's Cathedral, one step to the left revealed colorful rays of light streaming into the ruins.

Can you step aside and see anew?

(Photo: Remains of Glendalough Cathedral - Larry Gardepie)

Maybe our support for friends and community is the ability to Step Aside... and allow Life to reenter what was considered An Ending.  Maybe in Dialogue, we are invited to set aside our Gift of Talking... and treasure our Ability to Listen.  Maybe in the Silence of Death we notice Messages of Hope.

Over 1,000 years after Glendalough was established as a Monastic City, people still travel there in search of life among the ruins.

Where can we see life and messages of hope this week?

Larry Gardepie

Dialogue San Diego Consulting

 

 

More Irish Musings: Where is Our Loyalty?

Sitting in an airport waiting for our next flight, I began noticing the artwork around me.  A series of wavy colored beads caught my attention: it looked like an artist's version of the American flag (red, white, and blue).  How creative!  How patriotic!

Then I remembered I was in London Heathrow and the colors were both the colors of their national flag and those of British Airways... Oops!

(Did you know that more than twelve countries have flags with red, white, and blue as primary colors?  United States of America, United Kingdom, France, Russia, Netherlands, Australia...)

What catches your attention?
(Photo: Airport Artwork - Larry Gardepie)

What caught my attention and how I connected the information may not have been what the artist or the commissioning benefactor had in mind.  Instead, I took what I knew or understood and filtered or projected another meaning.  Does this happen to you as well?

These thoughts lingered throughout the next week as our tour group traveled throughout Northern Island, and we were introduced to art, landmarks, symbols, and messages of struggle and peace.

What stories do we tell along our journey?
(Photo: Downhill Trek to the Giants Causeway,
Northern Ireland - Larry Gardepie)

For example, visiting the Giants Causeway along the northern coastline between Belfast and Derry-Londonderry, we were introduced to an ancient myth of Irish and Scottish giants who created a causeway (rock bridge) between these two islands.  The giants wanted to prove who was bigger and stronger.  Their focus?  Individual loyalty - who was better.

Scientifically, we now have a different understanding about how these rock formations were created, but it was interesting to ponder how we all create stories... myths and legends... about what we don't know.  This includes what we don't know about other people!

Can our stories bend and change over time?
(Photo credit:  song by Jeffrey Buckley and Elizabeth Fraser)

Now that I am home and celebrating this American holiday weekend, I wonder:

• What stories have we created about patriotism and loyalty?
• How do we seek out and allow new information to change us?
• Can we test the accuracy of these myths and legends? 

As we journey with one another, let us consider an Augustinian way of thinking and living, where we are called:

• To be loyal to Truth (veritas), Unity (unitas), and Love (caritas).

And where:

• Truth provides a common foundation;
• Unity creates a common framework; and
• Love provides a motivation and compassion that allows everyone to flourish.

Happy Truth-Unity-Love Day! 

Larry Gardepie

Dialogue San Diego Consulting