Dia dhuit cara (Dear friends),

As I write this I am still suffering a bit of ‘jet lag’ from the return from Ireland. We had a time of great adventures, but most of all a wonderful time of enjoying the beauty of the Emerald Isle and the warm welcome of the people. We had the chance to visit many important places in Irish history, and holy sites where we heard about more saints than I knew there could be on such a small island.

Ireland is a marvelous place, and one I hope to return to - if for no other reason than to look for the one thing we were sure we could experience - the slower, simpler pace of life that was described in our pre-vacation study.

Perhaps in our modern world that is a dream, but I believe it can always be prayed for. Many of the parts of Ireland we visited were examples of an increasingly fast paced way of life with people hurrying here and there with tourism a very obvious part of the economy. Our first experience with the speed of life in Ireland came in our driving. There are few highways as we know them but many two lane roads just wide enough for two small cars to pass each other (and sometimes not even that wide). As small and winding as those roads are, the speed limits were higher than would ever pass here for the same type roads. The Irish traveling these roads often would even exceed the high posted speed limits and the radio was filled with news and comments about the number of accidents.

As I watched this fast paced life it occurred to me that in many ways, because it is such a small island, Ireland is a microcosm of our (and much of the Western world’s) way of living.

We hurry here and there if not actually speeding in our cars, speeding along in our lives. We seldom slow down to look at the beauty of the wild flowers growing along the road, or watch the cattle and sheep in the fields, or listen to the waves that crash against the cliffs we stand on. There are many good reasons for our hurrying along. Bosses expect us to finish things fast, we need to bring our children to the many activities they are a part of, we rush to get the house clean, dishes washed, laundry done so we can squeeze in that little bit of free time to maybe read a book or catch up on our sleep. I know that slowing this pace down may seem impossible, something we can hope for but never really achieve - how do we tell the boss we really need all our vacation and the children that they can really get along with one less activity? But before we can hope to go there, we first need to slow down within ourselves. As we approach Advent and Christmas we will be urged to live our lives even faster - it is we ourselves that need to make the decision - do we rush by that we fail to see the flowers or do we slow down and watch the cattle and sheep play? There is really no time like now to make a commitment that we will slow ourselves down and listen to God in the waves against the cliffs and the wind across the Burren. Then we too can:

Dance as if no one were watching,
Sing as if no one were listening,
And live every day as if it were your last.
(Old Gaelic saying)

Peace and Go mbeannaí Dia duit (May God bless you).