A chara, – Whatever you do at this time of year, don’t be hard on yourself. Remember that you mostly added to the good and made it better.
Wink at yourself in the mirror, remind that face of the wonderful life that breathes behind it and that you are here, not for any reason but simply because you are.
December is paved with trapdoors to the past and there is nothing as unpunctual as grief. It never keeps appointments.
It is a mirror that reflects an absence. An unexpected call. A silence on the other end of the line. It sends itself invites to my quietest moments and I am always in when it arrives.
Caelan Doris and Rónan Kelleher racing to be fit in time for Ireland’s trip to Wales
Seán Moncrieff: There’s a reason why Ireland hasn’t produced a Donald Trump or a Nigel Farage yet
Chris Fitzpatrick: I've worked as a health professional for decades. I'm perturbed by several issues in Lucy Letby's case
Competitive parenting in China: ‘School starts at 7.30am and I pick him up at 9.30pm. He studies again when we arrive home’
I feel strangely invigorated when it leaves, after it is done poking around and prodding me with its cold fingers of memory.
It is a counterpoint to the bird bone melody of living.
So, go gently as you go. – Is mise,
BILLY O HANLUAIN,
Dublin 12 .
