Roseleen’s Restaurant’s entrance, by Jenny Beale
Twenty years ago I published God is in Roseleen’s Restaurant, a small book of reflective meditations about my time working as a waitress in Ireland. Can two decades go by just like that? Twenty years ago I was 44 years old, living in a round wooden house in Kinvara, a small village on the West Coast of Ireland. I had just met and fallen in love with my Dutch husband. We would marry in May the next year and have our wedding feast at Roseleen’s.
When I got the job as a waitress, I was an unemployed technical writer with little knowledge of either psychosynthesis or Assagioli. But (as always) I was searching…
Waitressing in Ireland – the performance of this simple everyday task – unexpectedly led me to the Divine. Not only did I discover God amongst the cutlery, boiled potatoes, Irish eccentrics and lost tourists, I also discovered my own human limitations and vulnerability. God is in Roseleen’s Restaurant is a collection of vignettes that capture Irish character and wit and reveal one woman’s soul in her daily meditations on Universal Love.
This is what Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul, has to say about God is in Roseleen’s Restaurant:
“This charming and deceptively simple book re-awakens the kind of sentiments that ultimately form the foundation of social justice and world peace. The meaning of life is to be found in a small restaurant in a small place as seen by an author with a large heart and a great imagination.”
After five years of writing this blog, I have decided to dust off the pages of God is in Roseleen’s Restaurant and take a brief pause from my usually “Love and Will” reflections. For the next few months, I will offer you my voice from twenty years ago, the voice a younger woman during younger times – before Kinvara was riddled with gigantic €500,000 homes, the world was oblivious to smartphones and Facebook, and the Twin Towers stood tall in NYC.
I hope you enjoy the journey – both in time and space. The place itself – Roseleen’s Restaurant – disappeared a long time ago. Today there is a supermarket with a guest house above. Roseleen still lives in Kinvara. With much gratitude, I thank her for letting me share her beautiful paintings as part of this series.
Artwork by Roseleen Tanham, http://kava.ie/rosaleen-tanham/
And now…let’s begin…
Introduction to God is in Roseleen’s Restaurant
God is persistent. I learned this after receiving my third rejection letter when seeking work as a technical writer of computer manuals, a job I’ve performed successfully for the past twelve years. “We are sorry, but you are overqualified and too highly-skilled.”
God has a sense of humor. I learned this after ordering a cup of coffee and a scone at Rosaleen’s new restaurant. “Catherine, do you want to work as a waitress?” Rosaleen’s eyes pleaded with me. It was May, and every young girl in Kinvara was busy studying for her Leaving Cert — the Irish college entrance exams that determine, not only where you can study, but also what you can study. I had waitressed twenty-five years before. I laughed with God, and said yes to Rosaleen.
God has a plan. I learned this as a waitress at Rosaleen’s Restaurant. On my very first day, I realized I was going to learn more about myself and life in general while working for five hours in Rosaleen’s Restaurant than I had in more than a decade of working in front of my computer screen.
God likes small places. Kinvara has a population of about 3000 people and is nestled in a crook of Galway Bay in the West of Ireland. It is a place of megalithic tombs, holy wells, a 14th century castle, ancient cairns, Irish music, and weekly set-dancing.
God likes big places. Like the hearts of all the people I worked with, served, and met. Like your heart and mine too.
God is not dead. God is alive and in Rosaleen’s Restaurant. I promise, if you look, you’ll find God alive in your life too. That’s why I wrote this book. To help you to look.
