Takeaway from Ireland (and I don't mean French fries)

Halfway through our eight-day trip, John and I were laying on the bed in our tiny apartment on the Aran Islands. I was cuddled up to him with my arm around his waist, and I asked him, "John, how do be the people we are now when we get home? How do we keep the magic alive?"

One of the reasons I love attending the temple regularly is because I've discovered who my "real" self is there. When I get away from the stresses of life and the temptations and fallacies of the Devil, I discover that I really like myself ;-) I'm a happy, smiley, service-oriented person. And for John and me, we had a lot of those same feelings in Ireland.

The night before we hopped back on the plane to return home, we were a mess. We were so depressed about what awaited us at home--work, church callings, the animals, money issues, practicing for music gigs, John leaving for Pennsylvania just two days later. But more than that, there was a sadness about leaving the idyllic life behind.

Our trip to Ireland was one of the best trips we've ever taken, but for me it wasn't because of locations and things we did. It's because we reconnected, and because I saw the man with whom I originally fell in love. We laughed the whole week which is a rarity for John, and we were kind and anxiety free. We didn't need a lot of things or even fancy digs--we just needed each other, me in the driver's seat in the car, and the freedom to just be ourselves.

At Mutual last night, I was asked over and over, "How was your trip?", and there's just no way to answer that question in a sound bite (well, John can with the word "cool"). It sounds like I'm over-romanticizing it, but it really was transcendent.

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