So back in April/May of this year my mother and I embarked on an incredible, once in a lifetime trip to the British Isles. In 18 days we went all around Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales. It was such an awe-inspiring trip that I never want to forget it, and hope to some day go back and explore a few areas further.
A few of those areas are the Isle of Sky, the Highlands in Scotland as well as the northern islands and parts of England.
My heart really fell in love with the landscape stretching from the Lake District, all the way down to Oxford. Something about the scenery, the roads, and the people captured my imagination. Even though I am not a city girl, I LOVED Oxford, and if only I had the scholastic skills and money I would try to get into a graduate program there. I even got to sit (And had inspiration strike) in the Eagle and Child Pub, which is the pub that literary greats like J.RR Tolkein, CS Lewis (among others) came to write and meet to discuss ideas.
I have read both of these writers, and love their works.
One of the funny things I have noticed since being back home is that whenever I stumble across their works, whether their written or even the film adaptations of their works, I feel like I understand them a bit better for being in Oxford and the surrounding areas. I don't know if this is just a part of my imagination, or if by being there and seeing the same types of things they had, that I gained an understanding that I didn't have before. Maybe I picked up on some of their writing "mojo", or their essences felt a fellow writer when I was visiting and they followed me home.
No matter what it was, my newest goal in life is to go back to the Lake District, Stratford upon Avon, and Oxford and just spend some quality time with my notebook or laptop. And I don't mean just a weekend. I mean like a month or more. I want to walk the same places these people walked, I want to see the same buildings and become seeped in the history of the towns.
And most of all I just miss the great sense of peacefulness and contentedness that I had while I was there. I want to capture that feeling and bottle it up so I can take it with me.
One thing I do know, even if I never get back there, those feelings and memories will stay with me for the rest of my life. And I feel better for having experienced them.
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