Monthly Musings N°3
November moved so quickly, I missed my musing of the month, and I thought I would devote this month to a retrospective on the highlights of this year. I’m not much on New Year’s resolutions, but I am quite nostalgic at the end of the year. Maybe it’s the poet in me.
MOVING HOME
Moving back to my home city was a bag of mixed emotions for me—a blend of nostalgia and anticipation. While I was saddened by moving further from where my parents currently live, I have always known I am a city girl at heart, and I dearly missed my hometown. Though in truth I spent half my childhood in the city and half just outside the city on a horse farm where my love of horses was born – both places played a role in defining my essential self.
A RETURN TO MY NOVEL
In the midst of all the change this year brought, I felt drawn back to writing my novel; I found comfort and inspiration in the act of putting pen to paper. And when my protagonists decided they were going to Ireland, I had little choice but to follow them. Ireland, with its literary heritage and the enchanting tales of Yeats and Joyce lingering in the air, has become a new backdrop for their journey. The pages of my novel are continuing to unfold like a map, tracing the contours of characters who seemed to have been waiting patiently for their stories to be told.
OUR JOURNEY TO IRELAND
Our trip to Ireland – an odyssey to the land of a thousand welcomes, the lush green landscapes, the melodic lilt of the Irish accent, and the timeless tales woven into the fabric of every stone – was a pilgrimage to a place that felt both foreign and strangely familiar. Because many of my ancestors who settled in the Appalachians came from Ireland, its rich culture seemed to embrace me like an old friend. From the effulgent streets of Dublin to the windswept Cliffs of Moher, each step felt like a verse in a poetic journey of self-discovery.
THE END OF ANOTHER CHAPTER
So as I close another chapter of life, I find myself not just at an end of a year but at a promising beginning for the days ahead. The journey home, the exploration of Ireland which broke the temporary seize on travel the pandemic brought for us, and the continuation of my novel have become interconnected threads. Each experience has synchronously contributed to where I am as I prepare for the new year.
As the sun dips below the horizon, casting a glow over the distant mountains visible from the balcony of our new home, the same mountains where we were living at the start of this year, I am filled with gratitude—for the places that have shaped me, the adventures that have broadened my perspective, and the words that have allowed me to create. As my father has always said, it’s not just about the destinations; it’s about the stories lived, written, and cherished along the way.
Here’s to the journey—the one that circles back to where it all began, the one that spans across borders and oceans, and the one that continues to unfold with every step into the unknown. Cheers to the stories that find us, the landscapes that inspire us, and the unwritten chapters waiting to be written. The journey, after all, is never truly over—it’s a perpetual dance with discovery, a melody that resonates with the rhythm of life.
Wishing you all a blessed holiday and new year ahead.
x Erin
