The Apples in My Orchard

When we went to Ireland last fall, my husband and I found the history there fascinating. We spent one of our days hiking in the Glendalough Valley found in the Wicklow Mountains.

St. Kevin was a sixth-century monk who first lived in the Glendalough Valley as a hermit. He later founded a monastery at Glendalough. Although I am not Catholic, and we did not visit the monastic ruins, we did hike past the lakes and to the miner’s village in Glendalough. We were able to gaze across the lake towards the site of a cave where he spent years as a hermit, now named St. Kevin’s bed.

The Gledalough Valley is beautiful and inspired my haiku for today. To fully understand the haiku, you must know that it was said that a miracle of St. Kevin’s was that when his psalm book fell into the lake, it was returned to him undamaged by an otter.

For more on St. Kevin and Glendalough, visit the Glendalough Hermitage Center and/or Catholic Ireland.net