“Go placidly amid the noise and haste and remember what peace there may be in silence… You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.” (Max Ehrmann 1927) We all live life at a pace these days. It can be hard to slow...
“Your life is so fluid. Everything’s always changing. The way you think it’s going to unfold is not the way it’s going to unfold. That’s the fun of the whole exercise, and the gift!” (Robin Sharma) It's hard to believe that 2 years have passed since we took our first...
"Learn to light a candle in the darkest moments of someone's life. Be the light that helps others see: it is what gives life its deepest significance." (Roy Bennett) I will never forget the day. Smoke billowed from the smouldering ruins with savage intent. Screams...
This time of year, we hear a lot about resolutions. Diets, treadmills, nutrition… it’s frenzied. The gyms are shaking to excess with the new recruits each January brings. We become fixated. If you’re not on the ‘bang’, somehow you feel left behind. I use the gym,...
“My father played the melodeon Outside at our gate; There were stars in the morning east And they danced to his music” (‘A Christmas Childhood’, Patrick Kavanagh) Christmas carols have the power to trigger memories buried in the archives of our past. The simplest of...
“How strange that the nature of life is change, yet the nature of human beings is to resist change. And how ironic that the difficult times we fear might ruin us are the very ones that can break us open and help us to blossom into who we were meant to be.” (Elizabeth...
“What will matter is not what you bought but what you built, not what you got but what you gave... What will matter is not success but significance. What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered or encouraged...
3rd September 2018 Dear Pope Francis, I am writing to you as someone who is struggling to make sense of it all. Over the past decade, I’ve stepped back a little from the Church and find myself very much on the outside looking in. I’m equally aware of the widening gap...
“Circumstances do not make the person, they reveal the person. We’re not responsible for the cards we are dealt but we are responsible for how we play them. It’s not how you start. It’s how you finish.” (Cathy McCarthy) The journey of life takes many twists and turns....
Who would have thought we would have days like these? The landscape is tinged with a golden hue as the crimson light sets seawards each evening. We on the shoreline are lulled into a balmy calm. In the glow, the ordinary becomes magical again. Sand becomes the stuff...