Ah, Saint Patrick’s Day!  How lovely when nature is finally turning green again, to think about Ireland, surely the most enchanted place on earth.

I happened to hear Cathie Ryan on the Fiona Ritchie radio program night before last.  She sang beautiful, soulful ballads in her exquisitely clear and haunting acapella voice as she talked about her childhood in Detroit.  She told how her immigrant family kept their Irish heritage alive by singing their old songs, literally all day and half the night, against what must have surely been a bleak, grim industrial backdrop.  As a small child, Cathie thus developed her incredible ability to sing her thoughts with the same natural ease with which most of us simply learned to talk.

Fiona would ask her a question about her life and Cathie would say, “Ah,  yes, of course we felt that way…” and with without a second’s hesitation, she would begin singing about her memory – – straight from her heart in what I believe is the purest, most poignant voice on the planet.

Such amazing abilities more than likely exist in us all but never get developed to any outstanding degree through simple non-use.  What a caring, happy and wonderful world it would be if all of us related to each other through song and dance as the Irish do!  They have shown us what can be done – – they’ve opened our minds to our own awesome latent possibilities.

Here’s my Irish treat for you:  Cathie singing about Ireland.   Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  Enjoy