Dia is Mhuire díobh go léir a chairde, and welcome to my weekly report.
I’m putting pen to paper on the longest day of 2021, June 21st. A choppy breeze is blowing outside but the bright sunshine makes it feel and look like a real mid-summers day. I got my lawn fed at the weekend and the welcome showers have made it look greener already or has it, maybe I’m imagining it. I suppose we can make ourselves believe what we want to believe and maybe that’s the attitude that has kept us going all our lives. Nobody of advanced years, has come through all those years without experiencing some make-believe along the way. The world stands still for no-one and if we are to be part of it we have to stay abreast of it’s many changes and challenges. We learn this lesson from childhood. The smallest child playing with her dolly really believes that dolly can be put to sleep and wants everybody to be quiet in case they’d wake her. The same with a little boy with his toy gun when he makes it go bang bang his pal has to fall down or the game of make believe doesn’t work. It starts there and goes on all through life. Good times are great but it’s the bad ones that teaches us and lets us know where our true strength lies. How many times when thinking of some major stumbling block have we said “oh, I could never do that, I’d die” but when confronted with it and left with no choice but to go forward, then we find the grit that we need to deal with it after all. Very often telling ourselves that yes we can. Needless to say the power of God has a lot to do with it as we move on. For people who believe in his infinite power and goodness there is always a plan B to call on when everything else fails. I think that our religion is the best and most important aspect of our entire lives. I don’t know what it’s like for those who do not Believe. I suppose we had the advantage of it being drilled into us since day one and anything that came our way to try and make us stray from it never succeeded. Believe me it wasn’t always easy, when faced with some obstacle be it sickness or failure in business or in love and the Good Lord was in no hurry answering or plea, how we often swore that we’d never talk to him again or go to Mass but in the end we always got our answer and held on. Maybe not what we were asking for but definitely another angle which fulfilled our needs and how often we agreed that His Way was the best Way after all. When you grow old you can’t be blamed for thinking that you know it all. All the bridges that you’ve crossed must surely count for something. We’ve come so far and managed youth, marriage, childrearing, retirement and surely the rest is plain sailing as we reach the stage where we can watch the world around us with some degree of ease and comfort. But then along came Corona Virus, Covid19, the pandemic, call it what you like but it hit us where we’d never been hit before, utter confusion and our learning was only starting. It was always said that you’re never too old to learn and we became proof of that in a very short time. Looking back on the past 18 months, I think we’ve been bloody marvellous. To put it in lay-man’s language. Life had never been so good for the aged, foreign holidays, coach tours, group parties ,trips to the shops were all part of our daily lives and we took them all for granted like there was no tomorrow. Then wham, something very mysterious came creeping up but of course ‘someone’ will look after that and we can motor on regardless. But but, but, what is this we hear, there is NO ‘someone’ out there, so we must start learning again and teaching ourselves to play our part in our very own survival and that of those around us. So we cancelled our way of life and took up another one , and we beat the bug at it’s own game , repeating once again ,as we have said so many times in the past, that you’re never too old to learn. But it ain’t over yet, having spent so long in captivity ,we must teach ourselves now, how to re join the outside world. Some are finding it difficult to get a footing on it If the local cafes were open they would provide a great launching pad where we could meet up with old acquaintances and plan some more social events. Already some have joined friends for cards etc. while our Pitch ‘n Putt course is extremely busy. We all need a fresh start and in danger of sounding a bore, it’s up to ourselves to make the start. If driving out for the first time following a long non driving term, please take extra care. Roads have become very busy and our judgment is not the same until we get familiar with the traffic again. The world is waiting for us again and if we believe in ourselves, that will take us a long way.
[read more …] “Eily’s Report – 22nd June”
