Remembering the Past and Looking to the Future
From out of the earth, the well pours forth the waters of life which cut a path forward to the seas to return back by air and cloud so that the magickal journey will continue anew.
Another year has passed and it hasn’t really been much kind to us but it has been a lot better than 2019 especially with the world wide vaccination programme that has prevented a lot more deaths than the previous year under the pandemic. I know there are still restrictions but are not as stringent as they were previously. Hopefully things will be a lot better for the new year as we open the front door to welcome its dawn and sweep the dirt and rubbish of the old year out the back door (an old Irish tradition of welcoming the new calendar year that I only heard of in the last few years. It seems to be a an image of the old rural whitewashed thatched houses for the tourist industry but a very pleasant one all the same).
I am a frontline healthcare worker and there has been a lot of pressure on the health services but again, it has relaxed a good bit since the introduction of the vaccine to the populace. Yes, you still can get sick from contracting the virus while being vaccinated but mortality rates and chances of hospitalisation have decreased dramatically.
Looking back on the year that was and how my personal path has evolved during this time, I have come to appreciate more that which influences indirectly or what I manipulate and fashion into tools to aid my path. Those of you who have read my written pieces throughout 2021 will have a good idea of what I mean by that. Basically it’s changing what inspires me to what I want to aspire to and finally, make it a reality that impacts on my path both physically and psychologically (some can say spiritually as well). I am a fairly active person and started cycling for pleasure as well as for personal challenges. This year I took on 3 challenges. I hadn’t planned to do them but attempted them on a whim (okay okay, my partner ‘volunteered’ me for the NCBI charity one). The first was cycling a total of 300km for National Council for the Blind Ireland and I completed it over a 5 day period with the last trip being the most memorable. This can be found in ‘An Scéal a Trí Sliabh’ which I wrote during the Summer. Another charity cycle I attempted and completed was the 120km Fort to Fort for the Mercy University Hospital Cork ( where I work) which was the beginning of another change of my life which I wrote about in ‘Draíocht na Sidhe’. I did another charity cycle a few weeks ago which was the Christmas Cracker Cycle for Marymount University Hospital Cork which is a palliative care centre. This one was very important to me personally as it was the care and dedication of the staff in this organisation that was with my maternal grandmother & grandfather, paternal grandmother and fathers of two very close friends all of whom had different forms of terminal cancers. It was only 85km but it was the toughest challenge I have done to date. A week ago, a surgeon friend of mine sent me a link for another challenge in September 22. The 160km Beara cycle tour. Funny how things come back to you. Ardgroom village is one of the checkpoints on the route. I have written about Ardgroom Stone Circle and taken some of you there in both written (‘Scéal a Trí Sliabh’) and videos and pictures I have shared in social media groups such as the OCW member page and my own Na Mhac Tíre na hEirú (affiliated with OCW). This area is populated with a lot of Neolithic sites which I will be looking out for along the tour (that’s if I survive Healy’s Pass).
Owing to the weather conditions and due to national restrictions, I wasn’t able to travel much for some key dates of the year for personal decompressions/rituals. However, I did manage to go to Knocknacoille, John’s Well/ Tobar Brighid Naofa and a long day trip to Ardgroom but also I had the opportunity to conduct live decompressions at Drombeg Stone Circle at Crom Domhnaigh/ Cheile Tailte/ Lugnasadh and at the Linear Orthostadt stones of Castlenalacht just before Grianstad an Grimhridh/ Winter solstice on social media. I want to personally thank those who attended and endured everything that could go wrong and my Cork accent butchering the Irish language. A cairde, Andrew agus Johnny, go raibh maith agaibh.
I was disappointed on the morning up in Castlenalacht as I was hoping to catch some type of sunrise with the tallest standing stone but typical of Irish weather, I felt like a politician arriving at Newgrange. It was too overcast and started raining as soon as I left. But not all is lost. At the moment , there are weather alerts for the county and we have had nothing but bad weather but there was a small break. One morning I left the house to get to my car and a beautiful sun rise over the hills greeted me. It’s that one perfect moment that makes you pause, give you time to look what you have accomplished and what you can look forward to in the future.
Thank you all for listening to my journey over the past and previous year. So lets all raise a glass in toast.
Súil éile ar an bhliain anaus agus súil éile ar an bhliáin amárach.
Go n-ardóidh an bóthar chun beannú dui tar do chosán gach éirí gréine nua.
Go mbeadh an ghaoth i gcónaí ar do chúl agus go dtitfidh an bháisteach go réidh ar do shála.
Go mbeannaí tú do bheannacht ag teach Donn nuair a ghlacfaidh an fear dubh do lámh.
Athbliain faoi mhaise daoibh féin.
Sláinte.
Seán Ó Tuama.
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