Kristal Lee

Traipse over to New Kids on the Writer's Block. I'm there blogging about songs you sing out loud.

I love fireflies. Their mesmerizing iridescent glow composes epic adventures across the dark canvas of night in a mysterious language that burns my imagination. When I discovered John D. Engle, Jr.'s brilliant firefly poem  in Writers Digest, it spoke to my bard's soul. I clipped it, laminated it, and have managed not to lose it for over 20 years-- quite a feat for me. I could misplace something while it's still clutched in my hand, so says Professor X. Nevertheless, Mr's Engle's masterpiece has never been far from my reach. Presently, it's taped to my glass-top desk where it continues to inspire me to practice with persistence the art of writing with abandon.
 

"Men {and women} acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way...you become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions." ~ Aristotle

And I like to add:  a writer by writing. 

Surfing the blogverse I came across a quiz link on Celtic Queens that asked "What's Your Celtic Name?" I stopped and wondered just what would be my Celtic name if I lived in those ancient days of gods and goddesses, magick and mystery. I proceeded to delve deeper into this curiosity. For research. Cough, cough.

In truth, I was procrastinating. Delaying jumping into the first draft of my new WIP, which is the second installment of a werewolf series and has nothing to do with Celtic culture, names or traditions. Still, one never knows what tidbits may be useful in the future.

The link at Celtic Queens directed me to appropriate page at Quizilla where I proceeded to answer the questions posed to me by the oracle spiritualkatana.

Lo and behold, according to the wisdom of the ancients, my Celtic name is Niamh [ˈniːəv]. When translated means brilliant or radiant. Hmmm, I think I rather like this name. <grin>


Somewhere in the recesses of my seriously over-loaded and sadly disorganized brain, I remembered the name Niamh. Not from a past life, but something I read. More procrastination ensued while I dug through volumes of books to find the few I'm looking for. My library, columns of books towering and teetering, stacked willy-nilly around my home office, is as orderly as the information in my noggin. After several minutes of searching, I lay my fingers upon the appropriate tomes.

Niamh-- Some legends claim she is the daughter of the King of Tir Na Og. Others call her the daughter of a Celtic sea god from the Isle of Man--Manannán. Whoa! Procrastination just turned into something useful. Manannán features prominently into the Faery Guardian Tales series I'm cultivating. Definitely need to bookmark these passages for future reference.

Niamh of the Golden Hair fell in love with Oisin, an Irish warrior, and brought him to her home in the land of faeries. The Land of Eternal Youth. There, they were happy but after a time Oisin missed his Fenian friends and wanted to return to Ireland to visit them. Niamh placed a geis upon him and warned that he would be safe on his journey and could return to her only if his feet did not touch the earthen ground. 

I love Julie Andrews. And during the holiday season, I'm reminded of my favorite song of hers...My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music. This year I personalized the lyrics to reflect my favorite things and I'd like to share them with you.