0 be happy. and eat.

this morning we had a midterm over the history of ireland. the entire history of this ever so complex country. and it was in the morning. and they ran out of coffee. i know, my struggle pants were on. so some of us girls took the afternoon to get away and have our own little adventure. because some days you need to get away. and some days you need coffee. and scones. and friends. and laughter. and candy stores. and adventures. and train rides. and those are the most beautiful of days.

 

0 in God's hands

"This is what I've come to believe about change: it's good, in the way that childbirth is good, and heartbreak is good, and failure is good. By that I mean that it's incredibly painful, exponentially more so if you fight it, and also that it has the potential to open you up, to open life up, to deliver you right into the palm of God's hand, which is where you wanted to be all long, except that you were too busy pushing and pulling your life into exactly what you thought it should be."

this quote nearly moves me to tears every time i read it. it is from Shauna Niequist's book Bittersweet and encompasses the meaning and purpose of change we so frequently deny. change is hard. change is painful. but change can be beautifully powerful. we don't want to accept that it can bring about something good because we are so focused on the immediate struggles. but it can and does bring about good; in fact, change shapes us more fully into who God intended us to become. it is not always in the way that is comfortable or ideal, but sometimes we need to truly be broken and removed from all the things we depend upon to realize how much we truly need God and God alone. we all need to learn (especially myself) to allow God to hold us in His arms, regardless of life's circumstances.

 

0 my friends are the peachiest of peaches.

i adore words and i adore letters. in fact, i frequently find myself mourning the lost art form of letter-writing. words have always deeply affected me, just ask anyone who has called someone a peach in front of me (i swoon, every time) and a handwritten letter has always touched a special place in my heart (so if you feel compelled to write me while in ireland, i wouldn't object). there is something about the written word and the simple thought behind someone taking precious time to write out their thoughts to you that is simply beautiful. every summer i try to resurrect this practice and write letters, but it rarely works.  i once again came to ireland hoping to keep up with writing letters to share my memories with friends and family back home. 

little did i know how lovely and precious all of my friends and family back home are. before stepping on the plane, i was given a large stack of letters and notes from my beautiful friends and darling sisters. i was so touched and reading these words of encouragement has meant the world to me, enveloping me in love every day and giving me the courage to live abroad. my sister sarah wrote me a series of cards for all of the feelings i will inevitably feel, since she will not be here to help me deal with them. she truly is a peach. and a gem. and an angel. and i love her. in addition to the expected emotions (anger, insecurity, homesickness, etc.) she included surprises for when i feel rebellious (to prevent further tattoos) and for when i need a fairytale (as in every.single.day.).  and yes, you should be jealous that you don't have her as your delightful sister.

please don’t let the art of hand-written letters die. enjoy life. and above all, don’t give up on fairytales.

 

  

0 castles and valentine's day

i would wish you a belated happy valentine’s day, but i think the hallmark holiday is quite depressing and unnecessary. just kidding…well not really, but i really do wish you a happy belated valentine’s day because i love all of you quite dearly.  and because elyse is fighting to redeem my opinions of the holiday, so i am forced to acknowledge it. 

this year i finally had the opportunity to flee the country to escape celebrating it. unfortunately it turns out it is a holiday celebrated worldwide. who knew? (well apparently everyone other than me, but that’s beside the point)  however, as shocking as this is for me, i actually loved valentine’s day this year. mainly because i spent it at the top of an ancient irish castle, overlooking the green hills of ireland with a vibrant rainbow lighting up the sky.  walking through this fairytale town, seeing ethereal forests and this enchanting castle only reaffirmed to me that fairies and unicorns are real. and they live in blarney. embrace the reality of magical creatures, darlings. 

 

in celebration of valentine’s day i will leave you with one of my favorite love poems, since i am an avid poetry lover and hopeless romantic at heart.

i think the beauty of poetry lies within the power of each word, the emotions it can evoke and the truth it can present with such eloquence. people are commonly encouraged to hide their feelings and keep it together (although if you ask me, denying your feeling is what will cause you to fall apart). in reality, i think we shouldn’t be afraid to feel things and feel them deeply. we so rarely say what we want to say or tell people how we feel or allow ourselves to be moved by the simplistic beauty around us. i challenge you to allow yourself to feel and to feel things deeply.

by Tyler Knott Gregson

I want to be for you what you never

let me be and I want you to be what

you’ve been afraid all your life

to become.

I want to kiss you, and kiss you again,

and kiss you so many times our lips

are raw and red and throbbing with overuse.

I want to hear your name said with

accents, so many new tongues all

across the silly globe we spin upon

and I want to know what mine sounds

like in yours when you say it through

fear, and elation and apprehension

and calm and the complete and total

cessation of worry.

I want you, you and only you for the

rest of me, me and always me.

I want you, to want me. now. 

0 cupcake dream

thank heavens for birthdays. and thank heavens for having an excuse to buy cupcakes. the past two weeks we have celebrated around eight birthdays and have had countless amounts of chocolates and cakes and cookies. our caloric intake has increased dramatically and if it weren’t for all the hiking we do, we would have to be shipped home via UPS because we would all weigh down the plane too much. but seriously.

today for elyse’s birthday some of us girls rode the dart into booterstown to a quaint little bakery, bake my cake. because you can never have too many deserts, especially when it comes to cupcakes. i love cupcakes. i love more cupcakes more than i love glitter and coffee, which is a whole lot of love. but these cupcakes took delicious to a whole new culinary level.  we are talking inches of cloud-like icing fluff. Hallelujah for quaint Irish cupcake shops.