Dreams of Arcadia

When I was about eleven or twelve, my great aunt passed away in her sleep.  She was my father’s mother’s sister, and one of the favorites of the family – the center of our “mountain side” of the family.  She and Grandma had been exceptionally close, and so it was we were piled in the family station wagon for the drive into North Georgia for the wake.  At the time I knew very little of the Irish side of our roots, and the events of this day would come to be one of the defining moments of my life, the first doorway into a tradition and culture I have come to embrace with all of my physical, emotional, and intellectual being. Read the rest of this entry »