Jig of Life

April 6, 2010 at 2:53 pm (Family, Farming, Films, Ireland, Music)

Just to ensure that no one actually thinks I am a saint or anywhere close, I present as evidence the last month and a half of my life. I have been a basketcase. The combination of the flu, a sinus infection, cabin fever, and PMS turned me into a snarling lump of awful. I have been fit company for neither man nor beast, so I have just kept a low profile and stayed under the porch licking my wounds.

However, hope springs eternal and spring hopes eternal, and just as the lilacs breed out of the dead land, so does the creative spirit return out of hibernation.

I was in Western New York to visit my mother and brother and sister on Easter, and I also saw two of my uncles. It gave me enough boost to finish another Kate Bush movie I had been half-heartedly working on. So here it is, with much love to my grandmother Mabel Ruth Kellick and my great-grandmother MaryAnn Elliott, and yes, I know, Mom, the Kellicks were English not Irish. Artistic license.

I realized making this that these magical photographs, which I pored over as a child, had as much to do with my love for farming as Laura Ingalls Wilder.

6 Comments

  1. sher said,

    April 7, 2010 at 12:05 pm

    Maureen – amazing. Jig of Life. The photos. How you edited them. What a gift to have such evocative glimpses of your heritage.

    You did a beautiful job – I’ve watched it three times.

    Love and miss you!

  2. The Girl from the Ghetto said,

    April 10, 2010 at 12:29 pm

    Ooooh, I love this pictures. I used to do the same thing as a girl with my great-grandmother’s photographs. Love the one when everyone is standing on a ladder.

    I miss you too, and I can certainly relate to the cabin-fever thing. No job, no car, and the only people I actually speak with are the folks at my volunteer jobs or my family when they are here on the weekends. (My husband is now working a crappy shift and I see him for 30 minutes M-T late at night.)

  3. Liz in Virginia said,

    April 13, 2010 at 8:30 pm

    Oh, my dear —

    I am just having a hard time putting into words how connected I feel to you. It’s weirding me out, if you want to know the truth.

    Maureen . . . . .

  4. Liz in Virginia said,

    April 17, 2010 at 3:22 pm

    I just sent you an email . . . .

    — XOXO

  5. Leah said,

    April 29, 2010 at 10:16 pm

    Wow, Maureen! That was lovely. I’ve been wanting to do something like that for a long time. We’re raising our three kids half a country away from my prairie farming roots. The cousins I grew up with and their babies are far away. I realized when we had to do a school project this year that I haven’t told the kids nearly enough about their ancestors. You’ve inspired me.
    Leah

  6. The Girl from the Ghetto said,

    June 14, 2010 at 12:14 pm

    Girl, where are you?

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