On Hallin

Pretty wild out today when I went out to get some air after haggling with BT and then having a repeat of this day - coal and Harold. My sympathies go out to the coalmen ... they are exhausted, they are having to battle the constant wet, wind and all the extra distance and difficulties with diversions and bridges down - poor guys. Unsurprisingly, after my MOT, I needed a new set of tyres ... all knackered. The tyre men are working tyrelessly tirelessly, run off their feet with damaged tyres and, more expensively, wheels. The impact of the floods is so far reaching.
I sat looking at the sign whilst I was waiting .... I felt an affinity with the little list and agreed with all of it ...
Tyres  Tired ... yes
Exhausts Exhausted ... yes
Batteries ... flat ... yes
Still, the nice Mr Cameron has generously said the area will be getting 2 million ... it won't touch the sides. I know there are countless calls on the public purse but this is absurd meaningless political saccharin - if the money isn't there or there isn't enough to go around ... enable some creative solutions. Sometimes there is such a profound lack of political creativity.

Anyway, on a less irritable note, I offer this lovely poem after my walk on the wild side today ....
 

Beannacht / Blessing - John O'Donoghue


On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.

And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets into you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green
and azure blue,
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.