Dear Ireland

Dear Ireland,
You are a green island of small minds and big opinions.
You cannot decide if you want to lead our global march towards a more accepting and loving future,
Or if you want to bury your head in an archaic system of oppression.
You showed the world your pride when you were the first country to vote in the name of love for all,
But you dishonour yourself as you still refuse to support my sisters, your mná, as we fight to reclaim our bodies.

Words for London

Walking around London last weekend, I realised the specific peace that comes over my being while in the city. 

The pages that warm me

Some of the best things in life are seasonal. Everyone will have a different set of comforts that change with each term of the year. I find satisfaction in perfumes curated to induce certain feelings, the foods that come naturally, the clothes that either hug or flow from body, and the books that I read. Today the focus is on the books I crave in the cooler months, these are books that I have reread a few times, but always when it was cold outside. These, are the pages that warm me.

To Everything There Is A Season

Spring is the first new season of each year. 
She arrives to the party with hands covered in gardening soil and hair dripping from April showers.
Her appearance, though, is easily forgiven because she brings with her boundless buds and flowers.
She freshens up the room and greets each guest with the promise of growth and renewal.
She is hope.

Soulmates

I have a friend who has stars in her eyes and galaxies in her mind. 
I have a friend who is a golden hurricane wrapped in a brightly coloured pint-sized package.

She laughs without fear of the future

*Really, she laughs despite fear of the future.

A love letter to Germany

Dear Deutschland, 

Do you mind if I call you Germany? 
I think it would save us both the embarrassment of my butchering your name 
Even if your people don't seem to mind my feeble attempts at pronunciation 
I am rather lacking in the language department 
(Irish doesn't get you very far outside our island.) 
But speaking of your people, 
Not only does your blood run through the veins of some of my own most loved 
The inhabitants of your lands have shown nothing but 
friendship, understanding, and welcome
Giving any 'Irish charm' a run for it's money. 

Beauty doesn't have to be pain

Last year I became a vegetarian. At first it was simply an experiment, a test of my will power. I told myself I would only do it for a month. But as the end of the prescribed four weeks came and went, I remained off meat. 

I realised two key things after only a few days as a vegetarian.

1. I wasn't really a big meat eater anyway. The only difference that the deliberate lack of meat in my diet made was that I paid more attention to where I was getting my iron and protein from. Rather than eating a small piece of chicken or fish and thinking that would suffice my daily needs for iron I now eat plenty of dark green vegetables, so much so that my anaemia has actually improved. 

2. I couldn't justify another creature having to die when I could get all of my necessary nutrients and live a much healthier lifestyle on a largely plant based diet. When it came down to it, I could not see how me having a piece of steak for dinner was more important than the life of a cow. 

The second realisation is the one that has filtered into various other aspects of my life. I soon began to question how my life choices, beyond my eating habits, might be damaging to animals. If I didn't want to put products of animal cruelty and death inside my body, how could I continue using products of animal cruelty on my body. 

Cruelty-free beauty is something that I have a love/hate relationship with. I love it for the obvious reasons, but having consciously been purchasing only cruelty free beauty products for a while now I am all too aware of various draw backs. 
- Firstly, reliable cruelty free products can be difficult to find. 
- Secondly, a lot of cruelty free products, for reasons I cannot understand, are just subpar to the more popular brands on the market that we may be used to. 
- Thirdly, cruelty free beauty seems to come with a much larger price tag than those that test on animals - again I don't understand this.

However, I have managed to comprise a little bundle of gems that I wholeheartedly adore and recommend to anyone who will listen. 

Today we wear green. Two weeks ago we wore black.

Today, the nation sets out for its annual celebration of every single Irish stereotype imaginable. Irish and non-Irish alike don every item of green clothing they own and embark upon a day of festivities. There will be Irish flags, shamrocks, and Guinness galore as our little island puts on a show of unity and happiness for the world. We do it for ourselves too though.