Around this time each year as one year draws to a close and the horizon of another is before us I like to take some to recollect my thoughts and reflect on the year that has just passed and look forward to all that is to come. Just after Christmas, on the last day of my holidays from work, I was facilitated in doing this by embarking on a cycle along The Old Rail Trail, a scenic greenway in County Westmeath, from my hometown Mullingar to Streamstown station, which is close to the centre of Ireland. This was my first cycle since last summer and I experienced a great sense of freedom listening to the birdsong and feeling the fresh country air as I covered a 40 kilometre route out and back from Mullingar that traces the historic Midlands Great Western Railway track, past restored station houses and under attractive stone arched bridges. I believe that the positive endorphins we experience from getting active always makes exercise worthwhile and not only that, for me I find it both bodily and spiritually nourishing. I do believe that God is present in all things and one way I experience God’s presence is through nature and the natural environment.
In the past I often ran this route in preparation for the Dublin or Rome marathons but alas while I’m unable to take part in marathons anymore, having to curtail my road running due to a degenerative foot condition, I can still experience the thrill and positive benefits of completing the route through cycling. As I commenced my cycle in the mid afternoon the greenway was mostly deserted and that gave me much time to ponder and be in gratitude for the blessings of 2024. The winter sun was setting and I took some time to notice my surroundings even as I peddled away at a decent speed. I felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to recognise the many good things that have happened to me this year, not least the blessing of beginning full-time work in my home county but also the many benefits I experience from being involved in my local community. I still have a great passion for the sport of athletlics and while I can’t run as much I used to I recently qualified with a Level 2 Sports Ireland Coaching Award in Athletics and I desire to use my gifts and talents to help others achieve their targets and goals.
Another blessing of this year has been my reconnection with the Irish language. I use my gift of Irish regularly in my work and I was given the opportunity to attend a week-long Irish language course for adults in Gleann Cholm Cille in the Donegal Gaeltacht in the summer. This was good preparation for a Certificate in Professional Irish which I have been studying for. Irish is another of my passions and it has lifted me up to have had regular opportunities to speak it throughout the past year. I had many opportunities to travel in the past year and I was most fortunate to have a trip of a lifetime to the Paris Olympics with my Dad to watch the Track & Field Athletics. I also attended a Running Retreat in the Algarve as well as going on a winter holiday to Lanzorate and a long weekend trip to the Isle of Man in August to celebrate my Mum’s birthday. Which brings me to my new ‘working’ home – Athlone. It has been refreshing to discover a new place and take part in activities that I may not have experienced otherwise. Probably the most satisfying of these has been undertaking guitar lessons. Music is good for the soul! I’ve also been given the opportunity to work with young people in athletics which I love and I take part in a regular aqua class and run around the nearby fitness park .
Writing of course is also a passion of mine and as I look back on the past year I am also grateful that I was able to work in my local newspaper, Westmeath Topic, as a News Reporter for a year, finishing last March. I found it an empowering experience to get out into my local community to cover events, conduct interviews and write interesting stories. Writing is a labour of love for me and there were certainly many blessings attached to this work including meeting local personalities, covering religious affairs and seeing my journalistic work in print. Finally to aid my reflection and review of each year I like to bring it to contemplative prayer. God spoke to my heart during my recent cycle but God speaks most of all to my heart in the silence of Eucharistic Adoration. There is no greater grace for Catholics than receiving Jesus in the Eucharist and the prayer of Adoration prolongs this experience of resting in the loving presence of God. It is there that I can gaze on Jesus and surrender my struggles to him. When I start the day in contemplative prayer and reflect on extracts from the Good News of the Bible I feel more peaceful in my interior self.
This brings me to one final part of my review of 2024. Listening to uplifting Christian music on Spirit Radio and Spotify is something I enjoy. When I opened the Spotify app on my phone this week it prompted me to play ‘My playlist of 2024’. As I did so a shorter version of numerous worship songs played in shuffle mode before the app settled on playing the popular worship song ‘Reckless Love‘ by Cory Asbury, inspired by Bethel Music that expresses God’s love for us. I was particularly struck by the lyrics of the chorus:- Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God / There’s no shadow you won’t light up / Mountain you won’t climb up / Coming after me. For some reason these lyrics kept repeating on a loop and it felt like a providential affirmation of the abiding presence of God and a reminder to me to be in gratitude for the many blessings I have received in the past year. I was especially moved by the line ‘There’s no shadow you won’t light up‘. I thought again of my cycle in the Westmeath coutryside and the moment I paused to capture the scene – that long deserted greenway at eventide with its historic railway track alongside – and through the pretty stone arched bridge shone the shadows of light. As the new year speedily approaches a resolution I have set for myself is to strive to not dwell in the darkness of my past struggles but rather to focus on striving to continue sharing the light.
