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Journey in Wonder
by Keith Corcoran
Format: Paperback
Publication date: 27th September 2010
ISBN: 978-1-907179-91-4
Price: €15.00
This book is part fascinating trip to some of the most remote and unspoilt parts of the world and part soul searching quest for a deeper understanding of the human condition.
It is interlaced with comic situations the author gets himself into, yet suspense, tragedy, supernatural encounters, danger and romance are also woven into the pages of this special journey.
His wry, understated description of the difficulties of travelling alone or with travellers is often very entertaining. His accounts also reflect the inherent kindness in people he meets, who care, support, or offer wisdom as he travels. Whether staying with a Northern Cheyenne family on a reservation in Montana or meeting a young Tibetan monk in Katmandu, he is ever curious to see how others see their role in the world.
It is an often madcap quest to explore how important and resilient the human spirit is in creating a better world for us all and a celebration of travelling for the sheer wonder and experience of it. This journey is sure to stay with you long after you read it.
Introduction by Keith Corcoran
I was sort of compelled to write this book. It felt like it was ready to burst unto paper and I might as well have had a hand in its writing since it’s a journey that happened to me. I’m thirtyfive years of age now and that doesn’t seem so real somehow. I’ve lived in a townland called Trummon in South Donegal for most of my life and that seems very real. I have two loving parents, Donal and Maura and one younger special sister Donna. Happily, we are family all the time and friends most of the time.
This is not an autobiography but I think a few shared memories and events from my earlier years might help make more sense of this book for both reader and writer alike. My parents moved back from Dublin to live in Donegal and less than a mile from my Mother’s home place, when I was four years old. Around this time I was sitting in the backseat of our car. We were driving through some part of Donegal when my eyes took in a scene my mind will never forget. Time seem suspended in that instant and out of the back window I saw a beautiful Donegal glen in the fading light of an overcast evening. It was a complete vision. I gazed upon an ancient rocky mountainside, its summit cloaked mysteriously in swirls of cloud. A torrent of water gushed out of the mists and tumbled down unto a valley floor of deepest greens and bog browns. Even at such a young age, some part of me was mystified. I felt deeply at home.
At eleven years of age I cut a hazel staff from a nearby woodland called ‘The Scrug’, and set off directly for the mountain called ‘The Ought’ to the east of my local world. Across drains, over sheep wire fences and around marshes I tramped. I might as well have been trekking to Mount Everest such was my excitement. Reaching the summit was like standing on the shoulders of the world. All of Donegal Bay stretched out below me and beyond to the Atlantic Ocean. Then in amazement I realised I could see my own house, the size of a pebble, nestled in a basket of egg shaped emerald green drumlin hills.
Aged thirteen, I put on a grey uniform and went to secondary school which began a tough, challenging time for me. Life is tough though and even difficult experiences can be a blessing. At sixteen I drank my first alcohol, a pint of lager and lime. Aged twenty, I sat at a bus stand in South London on a cold lonely Sunday night surrounded by concrete and glass skyscrapers and cried my heart out. At twenty-seven I completed my college education back in Ireland and although grateful for much of what I been facilitated and funded to learn, I was left with more questions than answers.
That same year I read out one of my poems called ‘From Darkness be Light’, at a peace gathering on the Diamond in my home town of Donegal. It was around the time the Bush led US administration began its War of Terror against Iraq and later Afghanistan. Through this gathering I met Ruairí Mc Kiernan and after just a few meetings I threw in my support to set up a non-profit company called Community Creations. Working alongside Ruairí taught me that you can create and achieve whatever you wish for in life if you believe in it strongly enough.
Through our work with Community Creations projects and a new national youth health website we had come to understand that while the Celtic Tiger was bringing great economic prosperity and opportunities, there were all these social problems coming to the surface. We saw an increase in suicide, self harm, racism, alcohol and drug abuse, low self esteem, depression, loneliness and family break up. When we spoke to groups on the margins of society things were even worse. I felt that trying to solve these problems within the current norms of thinking was like trying to use an empty bucket to keep the tide out. Working with Ruairí and Anna Lally in Community Creations challenged me in many ways and in return gave me a massive injection of confidence, self-belief and a decent wage to put money aside for my travels. For me, Community Creations and SpunOut.ie has successfully engendered Mahatma Gandhi’s wise words as its core ethos that “all change comes from within.” With nothing but support and encouragement from family, friends and work mates I called ‘time-out’ in June 2006 and began planning and preparing to go on a journey.
I had carried two dreams from about the age of eleven years old. One dream was to see the Great Plains of North America and to visit a Native American tribe. The second dream was to gaze up at the mighty Himalayan mountains and experience the sights and mysteries of India. For ages, however, I could not decide which direction to take. Should I go East or should I go West? Now at the age of thirty, I was finally in the financial position to take a year out and go travelling.
One day around this time the thought occurred to me, “why choose one dream over the other. Why not visit both lands and make it into a journey of some kind.” Later I came to realise a wonderful secret about this trip. Although I had gathered the will and money to go to these places of my dreams, the journey had a course of its own for me to take. The more I let go and accepted this, the more the unexpected happened and the greater the adventure that unfolded.
Keith Corcoran
For more updates, photos from journey, and info on ordering see www.journeyinwonder.com
