Stepping Into A Vision

For years I have flirted with the idea of vision boards but cannot say I have ever 100% committed. I would carefully select and cut out pictures of goals I aspired to, artistically arrange them on a cork board, and completely forget about them until 2 months later when I removed the pictures and used the cork board for something else. I get the principle behind the vision board: creating a visual representation of your goals to stay focused (or for those Secret followers, harnessing the power of the Laws of Attraction). Problem was I failed to attract focus. Until a year ago.

I was feeling a little restless and revisited the idea of a vision board for the millionth time. I knew I wanted to travel more, so I google searched for an image of Ireland to place next to my image of a passport. Scientifically, I picked the photo that I thought was the prettiest and printed and cut it out. Had no idea what it was a picture of or where it was located. All I knew was it was very green (check!), hauntingly beautiful (check!) and in Ireland (double check!). On the vision board it goes!

This time I did pretty well. The board stayed up for almost 6 months. After which I took the photos down, threw them in a notebook, and used the cork board for work. Plus side: kept the pictures. Not-so-plus side: they were in a closed book that I never really looked at. That is until earlier this month.

I brought the notebook containing the pictures with me as a journal for my wander. Pulling it out of my suitcase, the pictures tumbled out and laying on top was the random Ireland photo. Sitting in an apartment in Ireland, my Type A sensibilities did a backflip. While I did not work the process as the Vision Board Pros prefer, here I was holding in my hands proof of a goal I had set for myself a year ago and was fulfilling.

Returning to Google, I searched the picture this time and learned that it was the Rock of Cashel, an ancient cathedral sitting high up on a green hill in County Tipperary. Of course I had to go and fulfill my vision! Booking a tour, I rode on a bus for an hour and a half to get a look at the Rock that served as the token monument of my Ireland aspirations. At first glance a smile spread across my face. I was looking at my vision.

Dating back more than 1000 years, the Rock consists of a 12th century Round Tower and chapel on either side of a 13th century gothic cathedral.

Outside the cathedral, numerous grave sites can be found on the hill overlooking the countryside. I was blessed with a beautiful, sunny day to visit the Rock of Cashel.

Wandering down the hill and looking back at the view I first saw on Google, kept on a cork board and then tossed into a notebook, I stepped into the vision and took a new photo (minus the sheep).

Don’t get me wrong, I do not believe I printed a photo and magically ended up in Ireland. A lot of saving, planning, and focus went into this wander of mine. What has converted me to the Vision Board Team is that whether or not I looked at the picture everyday, everyday for more than a year I was focused on getting to Ireland. A vision that stayed in my mind until it became a reality. Rock of Cashel was a really good reality.

Not in my vision but included in the tour’s was a stop at Blarney Castle. Let me say this first, all I knew about Blarney Castle was the tradition of kissing the Blarney Stone. I didn’t know how or why this tradition started, but I did know that I had absolutely no intention of kissing a stone MILLIONS of strangers have laid their lips on…for whatever reason.

Whatever, so I kissed the stone. I had just climbed multiple incredibly narrow flights of stone steps to get to the top and come face to face with this stone so I might as well pucker up.

The Blarney Stone story is that Mr. Blarney was in fear of losing his land to the English, who were picking up surrounding Irish land like daisies. Queen Elizabeth I made a special visit to Mr. Blarney and over dinner he gabbed on and on and on and on and on until he was able to convince the Queen to allow him to keep his land for as long as he lived. Mr. Blarney was successful in his campaign and attributed his win to his long-winded powers of persuasion. Hence, you kiss the Blarney Stone not for luck, but for the gift of gab. It should be noted this version of the Blarney Stone story was shared by our tour guide who rarely spoke the entire trip. Lacking the gift of gab (a requisite I would think for any guide), he might want to do a bit more than kiss the stone. He might want to shoot for second base.

The stone is embedded in the wall at the very tip-top of the castle. I honestly could not tell one stone from the other, but I figured the staff working the area could point the way. When your turn comes, you sit on a mat, lean backward over a large gap in the floor to grasp two bars and kiss the stone. Fortunately an attendant is there to hold you and a few bars are in place over the gap (which I read was not always the case?!?!?). Put back  to rights and having potentially attracted some sort of mouth sore, I headed back down the castle to an area advertised as “The Caves.”

Confidently, I walked up to the cave behind two young boys. They raced ahead into the cave and past a metal gate marking the entrance to a tunnel created to escape invasion. I took two steps in that direction and started slowing down. By step five I was hyperventilating. The ceiling was right above me (and possibly lowering?) and with it tons and tons of rock.

Can’t. Breathe.

The boys in front stood at the gate and called for their mom to hurry and join them. That’s when they got a good look at me wide-eyed, frozen, and breathing a little too heavily. They then darted deeper into the cave because, let’s be honest, it’s scarier seeing me at the opening of the cave heaving.

Unlocking my legs and backing out, I headed to the dungeons because clearly my heavy breathing caused me to forget where dungeons are typically located…underground. At the dungeons, the entrance was a very narrow staircase that brought you to a dark tunnel carved from rock and narrowed down to a point where you needed to get on your hands and knees to squeeze through. A single light bulb showed the way. Hell no! A British girl and her boyfriend were behind me and I stepped to the side to let them pass.

She asked, “What? Are you afraid all of this rock above you will come crashing down, trapping you in the castle?”

Yes, I think that accurately sums up why I will not be continuing down this tunnel. Cheers. For me, it seemed the scariest thing was following this mad woman into a black hole.

After my own personal episode of Fear Factor, I decided to walk the wide-open spaces of the castle grounds and enjoy the waterfalls, lakes and gardens – including a Poison Garden. Apparently Blarney Castle can’t seem to decide whether it wants to kiss or kill you.