What a magical experience!

 As most of you probably know my wee mum was a Catholic from Ardoyne in Belfast and she married my dad who was from a Loyalist estate in Belfast during the troubles.

This was not the norm in Belfast and caused great family divides, I was born and grew up on the Loyalist side and we never really bothered much with my mums side of the family or knew too much about them, things had to be kept a secret.

But over the past couple of years I've been in touch with one of my cousins from my mums side of the family and she has been sending me lots of old photos of my mum as a child and telling me stories I didnt know.

I always knew the street my mum grew up in but never knew what house and just recently my cousin told me which house it was, so I decided to drive by last night and have a look.

I'm driving down this terrace street in Ardoyne looking for the house number and all the gardens were bare, at the bottom of the street there was this garden that was lush with trees and plants, I was thinking to myself theres no way thats my wee mums old house as I was counting down the numbers, turns out it was!!

Then what I seen blew my mind, as I pulled up there was 3 Buddha's sitting in the garden, I couldn't believe it, I had to go in and say hello and tell them who I was, I walked in the gate and then I seen apple trees and I was thinking - apple trees and Buddhas in Ardoyne, definitely not the norm!

The door was open and there was this lovely lady sitting doing her nails like she was waiting on me coming or something, I told her who I was and she brought me and my friend in for a chat, she didnt remember any of my family but she was showing me all around the house, a small 2 bedroom house and there was 11 in my wee mums family all crammed into this tiny house, we dont know how lucky we have it these days.....

It felt like a real garden of Eden, like there was nothing else outside, this garden dulled down all the city noise, all the plant life, the sound of running water and the Buddha's, right in the middle of Ardyone, it was a pretty magical place!!!  

I found the whole thing a bit surreal to be honest, I've read things in the past about spiritual DNA, about how we can leave energies behind and others can pick up on this, it was my my wee mum that planted the seed of the Buddha in me, she seen what religion can do and the troubles it caused here in Northern Ireland and she always said to me growing up if your going to ever pick a faith be a Buddhist for they love everything, even the animals she said.

I would not be practicing Buddhism now if it were not for me wee mum, when my mum passed I contacted a local Buddhist Nun to come out and bless my mums body, in she came into a middle of a Loyalist estate in Belfast chanting, my delboy dad loved it and so did I, think my dad thought she was going to come back to life or something, thats what my delboy dad said to the Nun after the ritual,

" That was lovely, I thought she was going to rise up out of the box".....

My delboy dad sure could come off the funny ones!!!

Anyhow it was from that house in Ardoyne where my wee mum was born that the Buddha light was sparked in me.

I've made arrangements to go back and plant a tree in the garden, unreal!!!!

It was the husband who done the garden and he wasnt there last night but I've a feeling he's going to become my new Leaftenant commander!!!

#phantomplanter 

Peace and love!

I challenge you to phantom plant a tree! Anywhere, anytime, any place.....

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