The House on an Irish Hillside Quotes

“This book tells my story. I’m writing it in Ireland, in a house on a hillside. The house sits low in the landscape between a holy well and the site of an Iron Age dwelling. It was built of stones ploughed out of the fields by men who knew how to raise them with their hands and to lock one stone to the next so each was firm. It’s a lone house on the foothills of the last mountain on the Dingle peninsula, the westernmost point in mainland Europe. At night the sky curves above it like a dark bowl, studded with stars.
…
From the moment I crossed the mountain, I fell in love with the place, which was more beautiful than any I’d ever seen. And with a way of looking at life that was deeper, richer, and wiser than any I’d known before.”
― Felicity Hayes-McCoy, The House on an Irish Hillside

“Enough is plenty: the essence of health is balance and the route to finding balance is awareness in stillness.”
― Felicity Hayes-McCoy, The House on an Irish Hillside

“We've bought into the idea that we're morally required to "challenge" ourselves. So we give ourselves lectures about how we ought to be, instead of listening in silence to see how we are.”
― Felicity Hayes-McCoy, The House on an Irish Hillside

“I've moved from wanting anonymity to rediscovering identity; and from wanting things now to wanting to wait for them to happen in their own time. I'm learning to live in the present, and to know that I can't control what may come next. In finding a balance. . . .”
― Felicity Hayes-McCoy, The House on an Irish Hillside

“I thought of the first morning I woke up in Corca Dhuibhne when I heard Mrs. Hurley's voice outside my door. 'Tá roinnt bricfeasta ullamh anois agam duit, a chailin.' 'I have a share of breakfast ready now for you, girl.' I didn't know it then, but what I'd heard was a world view contained in an idiom: the food spread on the table wasn't my breakfast, it was my share of breakfast.... People here know that too much or too little of anything means lack of balance. Balance brings contentment. And if no one takes more than their share in life, we can all be satisfied.”
― Felicity Hayes-McCoy, The House on an Irish Hillside

“I looked out to the west, with the wind on my face and a chunk of chocolate in my hand. Then the clouds shifted, the islands were furled in mist, and I remembered the bar of chocolate I ate on the high cliff on my first day here at Mrs Hurley's. That day, more than half a lifetime away, I had a glimpse of something I'm still looking for. Awareness in stillness.”
― Felicity Hayes-McCoy, The House on an Irish Hillside

“I remember a woman called Máirín na Yanks Ni Mhurchú, who owned a shop near Mrs Hurley's.... I used to buy chocolate from her when I first came here, and sometimes we'd meet on the roads, picking blackberries. A few years ago, shortly before she died, she was interviewed for an Irish language television series. It was called Bibeanna, which is the Irish word for the wraparound aprons women here used to wear in the house and the farmyard. They were made of dark fabric, patterned with little flowers. I remember watching the series on television and thinking that Máirín's quiet voice hadn't changed since I'd first heard it. Sitting by her fire, wrapped in her flowery apron, she described her life, looking back on her childhood and the years she'd spent in her shop. She talked about the pleasure she took in the company of neighbours who'd drop in for a chat. Then she summed it all up in a sentence. 'I'm calm and easy in myself; I take each day as it comes and I keep my door open.”
― Felicity Hayes-McCoy, The House on an Irish Hillside

“I've often heard younger women here envy their mothers' and grandmothers' spiritual and emotional strength. They call them 'mighty women' and admire their serenity and resilience. Those women had an inner strength that kept them going, an intuitive sense of balance and a deep belief in God.”
― Felicity Hayes-McCoy, The House on an Irish Hillside

“When I first came to Corca Dhuibhne I heard a proverb that means 'enough is plenty.' I wrote it down then because of its concise use of Irish and, if I thought about its meaning at all, I assumed it applied to food and drink. Now I think it applies to all the appetites, including our appetite for work and for personal challenge. Too much or too little of anything means lack of balance. The Celts believed that the health of each individual affects the health of the universe. I don't know if that's true. But I do know that the essence of health is balance. And I think the route to finding it is awareness in stillness.”
― Felicity Hayes-McCoy, The House on an Irish Hillside