Mixed Feelings of Home

 

A beautiful sunset yesterday as we waited at Chicago's O'Hare Airport for our flight to Spokane. 

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I think it's called juxtaposition---that's the feeling I'm experiencing after being home since midnight. 

We came home loaded with memories of a trip gone well, a trip so inspiring, so beautiful and so much more than what we ever expected when we left the house on the morning of Sept. 28. 

Even as we were driving home from the airport last night in a day that started at 9 p.m. Oct. 13, (a 27-hour day) the feeling of being overwhelmed was setting in. 

We're overflowing with excitement to share our memories of our trip to Ireland which we viewed as the impossible dream until the very moment the Chicago ticket agent sent us through to our Aer Lingus to Dublin. 

We are deeply saddened, however, to continue learning of SO much loss in this community which we love and among so many people we have known as students, as acquaintainces we've watched grow up and people we've known as friends. 

I doubt there is a family or individuals in our community who have not been touched in some way by the inordinate amount of death we have seen locally in the past month. 

So, I'm guessing juxtaposition is the proper term. 

So happy, yet so sad 

We spent the past two weeks in a place where virtually every store and every pub followed similar safety rules of Covid, a place where we seldom saw a maskless person from one end of the country to another. 

We walked into restaurants and immediately were asked to fill out sign-up sheets for contact tracing, noting our name and the telephone number where we could be located.

At one restaurant we were even asked to show our passports. 

We received texts pretty much every day from the Irish government, thanking us for our cooperation and reminding us that if we had symptoms of Covid what to do and whom to contact. 

People are vaccinated in Ireland to a degree much higher than we see in the United States.  Though the numbers vary, most exceeded 70 percent.

The country is opening up, looking forward to traveling to the United States and thrilled to see Americans coming back to Ireland-----all thanks to a generally universal acceptance of rules set up to save lives and to save people from suffering.

Over the last week, the numbers of citizens dealing with Covid across all of Ireland, a country of five million residents, were not much higher than what we continue to see in our region. 

Granted, the past week or so has seen a slight surge, but plans are still in place, within the next two weeks, to drop almost all of the restrictions the country has lived under for the past 19 months.  

I make that comparison not to lecture but simply to suggest that Bill and I felt so safe wherever we traveled because close to 100 percent of the people were on the same page---respecting and following some simple rules, set up to help, not to hinder.  

There's a certain sense of confidence and comfort that goes along with living in such a situation.

I view it much like when you come to a stop sign and pretty much expect that all other drivers are following the same rules---not rules enacted to take away freedoms but rules set up for safety so that all involved can continue to enjoy their freedoms. 

And, so we had a wonderful time, knowing that for the most part we were safe and learning when the trip all was winding down and we received our Covid test results that a well-thought-out safety net had protected us from contracting Covid and that we could come back to the one place we love more than even Ireland----home.

As we drove home last night, I viewed part of a somber special report from KXLY news and just finished watching its entirety before starting this post.

There is light at the end of this horrifying tunnel if people will just honor the simple guidelines that make the difference between life and death. 

Run that stop sign, and you know the potential consequences for yourself and others.

Maybe you'll luck out; maybe not.

Same is true with Covid. 

Please! Let's stop the sadness. 

Let's honor the lives of those lost by honoring Covid safety guidelines. 

There's a rich and wonderful life out there for us to live and, hopefully, a lot more joy and happiness to experience, if we could only get past this sad chapter in this area we all love so much.  

Always a symbol of a long journey home, this huge painting hangs on the wall in Dublin Airport. 

I've never ridden on a flight with so many empty seats.  In a couple of weeks, they'll likely fill up as vaccinated Irish can again travel to America.