Cavan, Ireland
I took the bus from Dublin to Cavan to meet with friends. I really didn’t know what to expect after hearing some funny jokes about Cavan and it’s people. There was a three day music festival in Donegall and so many buses were diverted to assist in getting all the people in the right direction including my bus to Cavan. The bus was packed with college aged people carrying sleeping bags and pillows on their way to Cavan to transfer to another bus heading further north. The scenery is every variety of green in the spectrum. I was picked up at the bus station and off we went to a friends house for a weekend painting class. I’m not a painter but if that’s what my friend was going to do then so am I.
What I didn’t expect is to be reintroduced to a sense of family. I was a guest in someone’s house, a mother, father, son and daughter and a boyfriend on the way. One sister was missing but ever present in her art on the walls, family photos, and included in many conversations. I found out she was at the BECK concert in Dublin like I was but of course we didn’t cross paths. The painting class was made up of mostly women from mothers to college grads hoping for doctorates and when the ladies got rolling in a conversation the laughter contagiously spilled over.
The class was as much about friendship as it was painting and Caroline being an inspiring artist herself has a way of working with people allowing them to come to their own conclusions and technics. Lunch was an especially fine time with great food and of course more laughter.
A quick tour through town drew us into a local pub where Caroline went when she was living in Cavan and so did her mother back in her school days. The Blessings Bar is old and has a spot for bands to play both inside and a ‘beer garden out back with a small stage. One of the owners hired Caroline to paint in different murals on the walls, man on a bike and a guitar player were among them. For the most part we stayed around the house over looking a lake with swans batting at the water’s surface as they moved across the water or took flight. From my room I could hear swans honk, a donkey hee-hawing and an odd dog that howled softly to nothing. I felt an odd healing underway.
After the painting course was over we had some down time where a birthday cake was being made for another friend and I sat with Rob and played music that we thought we’d both like that maybe the other hadn’t heard. There was lots of music and a neighbor came over to help with the art on the cake and have a laugh. Check.
What happens to a wanderer can be epic or it can be quite soothing. My time in Cavan was a break from a very long road. I realized I hadn’t had a home cooked meal since I left my friend Terry’s house in Alaska and I hadn’t observed a loving family and friends in considerably longer. Thank you.
