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.
Car makers sound alarm as China turns off tap on mineral supplies
The ‘emotional toll’ of buying a home in Ireland: ‘split’ deals and queueing for houses already sold
Lucy Letby case roils Britain’s legal and medical establishments
John Boyne on Bring the House Down by Charlotte Runcie: Toxic masculinity steals the show
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 .
