I don’t think there is anything quite uplifting as sunlight on yellow flowers on a day that is dry and near you are trees on which birds sit, chirping.
Category: Contemplation
I’m delighted to discuss Mantles: Encountering Brigid with Meath Libraries Executive Librarian Mary Murphy as part of Meath Libraries and Meath County Council St Brigid’s Day Celebrations. See YouTube below to watch our discussion which will premiere on Feb 1st 2022 at 6pm.
On the evening of February 1st, I will be talking about my research on Brigid, and Creative Ireland (Kildare County Council) funded project Mantles, to members of ATGI Tour Guides of Ireland.
Many thanks to Meath County Council and ATGI for the invitations!
As part of my celebrations of Imbolc, Brigit and St Brigid, I will also be attending events and exhibitions and furthering my reading:
- Woman Spirit Ireland event with Mary Condren among others.
- Sult Artists – art exhibition on Brigid at Solas Bhríde, Feb 2022.
- Solas Bhríde events which include talks, demonstrations of rituals associated with St Brigid as well as mindful and soulful walks.
- Lightshows, talks, music, dancing around the country – See Kildare events here
- Kildare Facebook Page Brigid 1500 which commemorates the 1,500th anniversary of the death of St Brigid.
- HerStory Brigid’s Day Campaign which spearheaded the campaign to make Brigid’s Day a national holiday – which it will be, from 2023.
Wishing everyone a much healing, health, and heart this St Brigid’s Day and Imbolc.
Flannery O’Connor states in her wonderful essay “The Nature and Aim of Fiction”,
Fiction is about everything human and we are made out of dust, and if you scorn getting yourself dusty, then you shouldn’t try to write fiction. It’s not a grand enough job for you.
And it strikes me that the dust and muck still stick even after the drafts of fiction have been written. Perhaps it’s only by getting out into the air, feeling the cold, and the wind, and seeing all the mess and the beauty that surround us that we can begin to see, really see, what is there in our creative space.
Julia Cameron maintains that “art needs time to incubate, to sprawl a little, to be ungainly and misshapen and finally emerge as itself.” And incubation takes time, energy, and space. We need to rest, reset and renew ourselves and our energy so that our creative selves can be open enough to let our creations emerge. It is only then we can accept – and then fine tune – the manuscript that sits before us.
Shauna Gilligan Writer 