I’ve never paid much attention to St Patrick’s Day before. My family is Scottish and Norwegian, primarily. It wasn’t our day. 

Then I discovered my birth father was of Irish descent. His last name was McCourt.



So this is my first St. Patrick’s Day.

I will be spending it in Chicago, where I am attending the NEXT Church Conference, just down the road from a river I hear is green. 

It is such an interesting journey to be on–discovering and claiming a heritage after 46 years of having that be a blank space. 

I may not (or I may) drink green beer tonight. I will certainly watch this video.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OCbuRA_D3KU

The heritage in my birth family is more than Irish. Like most of us, our ancestors hail from many cultures and countries. I’m grateful for the strands, woven together to create me. I’m grateful for the way I can recognize  my face and the faces of my children in the pictures of my ancestors. 

But today, I’m grateful for the knowledge that a part of me is Irish. It may seem like a little thing, but today, it feels immense and sacred.