{"id":294,"date":"2010-07-22T15:59:31","date_gmt":"2010-07-22T15:59:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.librairc.net\/wordpress\/?p=294"},"modified":"2010-07-24T00:07:23","modified_gmt":"2010-07-23T23:07:23","slug":"oh-scotland-my-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.librairc.net\/scotland\/oh-scotland-my-heart","title":{"rendered":"Oh, Scotland, My Heart!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh, Scotland! How I long to walk your highlands and your glens,
\nTo watch the flowers in your meadows wave in the breeze,
\nTo hear the ocean waves noisily kiss the shores of your western isles,
\nTo sift the sands of your beaches through my fingers,
\nTo see the rainbows after your showers,
\nAnd to feel your history surround me.<\/span><\/p>\n

You are not the land of my birth.
\nYou are the land of my ancestors’ birth.
\nMy ancestors, who were involved in your struggles to become a nation,
\nWho were there in your shining hours and your darkest hours,
\nWho sacrificed for you and were shaped by your story
\nThen later left you for reasons I do not know,
\nBut my innermost being knows there were tears at the parting.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the ripples and tides of the ocean shape the sands and even the shorelines over time,
\nSo did the experiences of my ancestors ripple through the generations and shape me.
\nThe whispers and shouts of their patriotism have flowed through my blood since my brith.
\nAnd, I long to know your history, to fathom the riddles of your past.
\nI cannot read enough or learn enough about you.
\nI want to experience every facet of you so that I may better understand myself.<\/span><\/p>\n

I must have inherited a homesickness gene, one that pines for you at times
\nAnd feels incomplete without my connection to you.
\nYour music soothes an empty corner of my heart
\nWhen I am aching to be on your sod.
\nMy love for you permeates my soul.<\/span><\/p>\n

No, you are not the land of my birth,
\nBut you are the land of who I am.
\nYou haunt me; your magic pulls me.
\nOh, Scotland! You are my heart!<\/span><\/p>\n

Pensive Thoughts on a Warm Summer\u2019s Evening<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Scotland, My Heart,
\nI have seen your highlands and your glens
\nand felt a recognition I did not expect.
\nI belong to the rocky areas of your highlands.
\nWhy, I do not know, but I am at home there.
\nMy heart is at home there.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have walked on your beaches
\nand felt your breezes ruffle my hair.
\nHow lovely is the beach on Mull,
\nlooking across deep blue water to Oban on the mainland.
\nFor hours I could sit there seeing on my left the Isle of Lismore,
\nthe birthplace of Duncan, who was my ancestor.<\/span><\/p>\n

Your wildflowers are pressed in the pages of my scrapbook,
\nA reminder to me of how they wave in the breath of your fresh, pure air.
\nI look at my photographs and try in my mind to transport myself back there,
\nBut you are just out of reach.
\nI can’t quite do it.
\nSo I remain unsatisfied.
\nA sadness grips me.<\/span><\/p>\n

I long to be back on your soil to stay
\neven though I have people and things here who need me.
\nWhat is this thing that pulls me, embeds itself in my soul?
\nWhat hold do you have on me and why?
\nI don’t understand it.<\/span><\/p>\n

You haunt me.
\nYour magic pulls me.
\nYou are my dream come true.
\nI am incomplete when I’m away from you.
\nBut why?
\nOh, Scotland, My Heart.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh, Scotland! How I long to walk your highlands and your glens, To watch the flowers in your meadows wave in the breeze, To hear the ocean waves noisily kiss the shores of your western isles, To sift the sands of your beaches through my fingers, To see the rainbows after your showers, And to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.librairc.net\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.librairc.net\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.librairc.net\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.librairc.net\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.librairc.net\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.librairc.net\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":418,"href":"https:\/\/www.librairc.net\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions\/418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.librairc.net\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.librairc.net\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.librairc.net\/scotland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}