I was born in Wales but I have always felt kind of lost here. When I was a child my father told me stories about his grandfather who came from Scotland. He was always singing Scottish songs and telling me about our ancestors who were wealthy landowners and suchlike but of course at the time I never took any notice. But as I grew up I became more and more interested. Then my husband and myself (who have been campers for many years) decided to go to Scotland for the first time. We decided to go South for the first time because the journey to the highlands would take about 12 hours. So I took a pin and stuck it in a map and picked the first campsite near to where it landed. This happened to be Auchenlarie on Wigtown Bay. After travelling for nine hours my husband was convinced we had gone too far and wanted to turn back. But for no particular reason I knew we were going the right way. I told him to keep going when we passed the Cardoness Estate and other derelict castle landmarks. Then we saw the sign for the park and we got out. When we saw the sea the view was absloutely breathtaking but more than that I felt I had come home. Later on in the vacation I looked around the local tourist shops and looked up my clan history. I was amazed to find the Maxwells had owned a large amount of land in the area most of it along the now A75 running along the Solway coast. We have been back many times since then. We have been all over the UK camping but Auchenlarie is the only place where I feel relaxed and the only place I miss when I come home. Another time much later we were taking a bus trip to Oban. When we got on the bus there had been a mix-up and there was nowhere for us to sit together and no-one would move. Then a lady down the front of the bus asked me to sit by her. We talked to pass away the time and she told me she was from London. She was retired and was once a nursery nurse in a children's home. Guess what! I am a qualified nursery nurse too. I told her I loved Scotland and that my maiden name was Maxwell. Guess what You've guessed it! She said her name was Maxwell and like me she was a member of the Maxwell clan. Then they played Bonnie Galloway over the radio. I told her I thought the highlands were beautiful but I had a soft spot for Galloway. Guess what! She said she loved Galloway so much she wanted to move there but couldn't because she had to take care of her disabled sister. I told her I would move too but I had a profoundly deaf brother to look after in South Wales. The lady even had a brother who lived in Castle Douglas only a short distance from where we camp. Something she said rang true. Although she was born in England and had lived in London all her life, she still felt as if she was Scottish. All the Maxwells were either musicians scientists or writers or any kind of creative people. I am a published poet and now write songs with my husband. So is it he place you were born that makes you or the blood in your veins?
What a lovely story Maxie I believe there are a lot of things in this life that we simply can't explain, the threads of our lives crossing, fate, kindred spirits, past lives etc.
I must admit as I read your post I was reminded of a TV programme I once watched where they regressed a lady to a past life. After getting some information about her past life from her they brought her out of her hypnotised state and took her to the area that she had been in in that past life, she had never been there in her current life. They stopped the car on a main road and asked the woman to take them to where she had lived. After leading them over fields and fences she took them to a farm where a farmer had transformed some old worker's cottages into a cow shed. In the shed she was telling about a hard stone floor with a design on it, even drew this design. The farmer had lived on the farm all his life and assured them there was no hard floor in the cow shed and it was all dirt. To prove this the TV crew took a spade and started digging in the dirt, and much to everyone's amazement they came to a hard stone floor that once they cleared more revealed the design that had been drawn by the woman. Maybe you have unconsciously been led back to a place where you were happy in a previous life
Group: Celtic Nation
Posts: 911
Joined: 18-Nov-2003 Zodiac: Oak
QUOTE (zeryx @ 06-Sep-2006, 01:09 AM)
I believe there are a lot of things in this life that we simply can't explain, the threads of our lives crossing, fate, kindred spirits, past lives etc.
I have to agree. A few years, I took my family to visit the Gettysburg Battlefield. For some reason, the triangular field near Devil's Den had an irresistible draw for us. A couple years after that visit, I started researching whether we had any ancestors involved in the War Between the States, and found well over a hundred on both sides, mostly from extreme SW Virginia (Scott County). As it turns out, Thomas Lewis Ware, Company G, 15th GA Infantry, one of my distant Georgia cousins, was killed during the charge Bennings's Brigade made through the triangular field. After Thomas was killed, his brother, Pvt. Robert A. Ware, recorded this poem in the last page of Thomas's diary: ''Many of our brother soldiers whose life was made a sacrifise upon our country''s altar. There the weeping willow gently waves over his grave. And there we prayed that God would guard and protect that little mound.'' Was it mere coincidence that we were drawn to the triangular field? Perhaps, but perhaps not.
I'd say not. Being born in Nova Scotia, and living my entire life in Canada has had a profound influence on who I have become. But living in an area that celebrates the cultures of the UK as much as its colonial history makes it dificult to be simply Canadian. Nova Scotia's name alone points to this. I'm a New Scot. Does that imply I'm Canadian, or something else?
When trying to trace my father's lineage, I found myself associating names with places I've never seen. Mostly English names (Reeves), with some Irish (Keddy), Scandanavian (Anderson), and even a French name which I can't remember at this time.
Perhaps it is a different story for people living in what was once a colony.
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Caw
"I am a Canadian by birth, but I am a Highlander by blood and feel under an obligation to do all I can for the sake of the Highlanders and their literature.... I have never yet spoken a word of English to any of my children. They can speak as much English as they like to others, but when they talk to me they have to talk in Gaelic."
-Alexander Maclean Sinclair of Goshen (protector of Gaelic Culture)
Home is where your family is. My home is Virginia where I was born and down south. Though I live in the north and my husband and all my children were born here this has never been my home. My home is also Nova Scotia. As Jean-Thomas says it home is where your family that loves you is and also the lands of your fathers. Your heritage and ancestors are a great part of how you are. So who you are is not where you are born, but is where your heritage is and who you are inside. I am Scots-Irish, Welsh, English, Polish, French, German, American Indian. I am a child of the sea yet also a child of the south and the mountains of Virginia. I am the keeper of our family stories. I am just as much at home with the mountain folk of Appilachia as I am with the dory men of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. RebeccaAnn
I was born and raised in New Jersey, yet all of my life I have had a love of Scotland. I didn't know why, but I have always gravitated to everything Scottish. My family has only mentioned that we were English, but no one ever spoke of any Scottish heritage.
Finally, after having the opportunity to travel all over the world with my work, my wife and I went to Scotland. I immediately felt "at home". My wife noticed it in my personality for that two weeks.
No! I think when you travel and some place grabs your heart and you get this feelings of being part of something for no apparent reason you have found the pieces of you that were missing. We all search for something to love in our lives. We yearn, crave and kill for a completed person we want to be. When you find that place you "just know". OMG I sound like that Irish part of me trying to come out!!! But you "just know". Don't tell anyone there about 1/4 of me Irish and everything else is a Scot with a big butt.
People are like tuning forks, I truly believe this. One never knows what will strike us and that perfect tune rings within us. For me I knew Celtic Music vibrated me like no other music does. I love all kinds of music from the voice and instrument, but it is the Celtic tunes that vibrate me the most. It is also geographies that one can tune to, landscapes and colors, objects both new and old may stike a chord within you. People strike chords of perfect unison with each other. You are a tuning fork and the more things you can bump into and experience the better chance it will be that you find the perfect tune within you.
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Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. Plato(427-347 BC) Philosopher and Educator
Three things in human life are important: The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind. Henry James (1843-1916) Writer
When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people. -Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) Theology Professor
People are like tuning forks, I truly believe this. One never knows what will strike us and that perfect tune rings within us. For me I knew Celtic Music vibrated me like no other music does. I love all kinds of music from the voice and instrument, but it is the Celtic tunes that vibrate me the most. It is also geographies that one can tune to, landscapes and colors, objects both new and old may stike a chord within you. People strike chords of perfect unison with each other. You are a tuning fork and the more things you can bump into and experience the better chance it will be that you find the perfect tune within you.
USN;
For me my friend it is the PIPES the Highlands, and the lilt of the Scottish Brouge. Some times I miss the sound of my Mothers' accent that it brings a tear to my eyes. I guess I'm like an old war horse ears perking up to the sound of the guns.When I was in Scotland my most enjoyable times were just sitting and listening to the people around me. 'Twas surely Heaven.
David S. R. Clark, Administrative Sergeant-Major _______________________________________________________________________________ Teton & District Performing Arts (Bagpipes~Drums~Vocalists~Highland Dancers)
Burns' Society of the Tetons
Ammon Scottish Festival
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