Lá Fheile Bhride

Lá ann speisealta seo san feilire Gaelic.  Today is a very special day in the Gaelic Calander.  Although celebrated as the feast of St. Brigid many believe that Brigid was a Celtic Goddess who became Christianised as Ireland slowly became Christian after the arrival of St. Patrick in 432. 

St. Brigid is associated the land, with our precious spiritual earth, with herbs and healing and is regarded as the patron of hearth fires and domestic life.   To this day children all over Ireland make Celtic crosses from rushes which were (and continue to be) hung in homes to protect them from fire and from illness – in other words to bless and protect the home.

The famous Irish poet Raftery began one of his poems with ‘Anois teacht on Earraigh, beidh an la dul chun shineadh is tar eis na Feile Bhride arodoigh me mo shaol’ meaning ‘now that Spring is arriving the days will be lengthening and after St. Brigid’s Day I’ll raise my sail’, or, ‘now the days are getting longer I’ll head off on my travels again’.

February 1st is also known as Imbolc, first day of Spring connected with the arrival of the first lambs and is one of the great Celtic seasonal festivals, the others being Samhain, Bealtaine and Lughnasa. Imbolc falls about half-way between Mid-Winter’s Day and the Spring Solstice and in ancient times there would have been big feasts and celebrations on these days every year.

This day is a day of hope, there are signs of Spring, the days are getting longer, birds are singing more, and daffodils are bringing joy to our hearts.

This Spring again farmers will be planting seeds which will yield us food in the Autumn.  May we also plant seeds of hope, health and healing for all humankind, to be showered with the sunshine of love, and refreshed by good-will, that Our Spiritual Earth may yield fruits good health, joy, warm hugs and happy get-togethers in the Golden Days of Autumn.

We are here

Photo by Usman Yousaf

We are here.  Right here, right now.  Not anywhere else, not where we think we’d like to be.  Not planning a holiday or to meet a friend for coffee.  Just here. We might be gritting our teeth, feeling stressed and unhappy.  Wondering when will we ever go through the airport again, enjoy a bit of retail therapy, have a girlie day at the spa, etc.

Stress is resisting the moment, wanting things to be different, trying to make them different.  This is where we are and during this, we cannot be anywhere else.  So, let’s just do an Elsa, let it go, take a breath and descend to earth and land in this moment.  

Rebelling against the now, resisting it, fighting against how things are, moaning and complaining all just make us stressed.  Does no good, doesn’t get us anywhere, contributes to the unhappiness of those around us.  It’s hard.  Our ego wants ‘it’ and want’s it ‘Now!’, that trip to the shops or the mini break in Vienna, that relaxing afternoon at the hairdressers.  We look like we’re adults, but we know the truth.  Inside we’re two years old and having an absolute temper tantrum because we can’t have the life we used to have.   But we can’t.  Not at the moment.  

What can we do to help us feel better?  A few simple steps can transform our furious indignant (inner) two-year old into a calm adult.  Take a few full deep breaths.  Buy a bunch of daffodils.  Taste that tomato.  Feel the water and then the towel on your hands as you wash and dry them. How blessed are we to have hands to wash and dry.  Notice the tiny buds starting to appear on the trees.  Enjoy the few extra minutes brightness in the evenings.  Look with wonder at the sunset.  Stress gone.  Life is magic again. We are here. There is only here.  There is only now. 

If I can Help Somebody

Photo by Rachel

‘If I can help somebody as I pass along then my living shall not be in vain’ are the lines of the old song. 

In our busy lives we can become very focused on ourselves and our own needs.  We might not notice that everyone we meet in our daily lives has needs too.   People are worried, stressed, overwhelmed.   

Lending a helping hand doesn’t have to be a big deal.   It can be as simple as smiling at a child, saying ‘thank you’ to the girl at the checkout who’s just dealt with a stressed-out mammy, or popping a text to friend we haven’t see in a while.   Someone giving us a bunch of daffodils can give us such a lift.   We really feel it when someone actually really looks at us, acknowledges us, and says ‘Hi’ as they pass us by on the street. 

An older gentleman believed in always letting one car out of a side road and he believed that if everyone did this the traffic would start to move along swiftly again.  That simple kind act could change someone’s day.   That gentleman always used to visit lonely patients in hospital at the weekends.   A teacher of mysticism always taught with the same energy and respect whether the room was packed or only had a few students.  In helping others, we feel good ourselves. 

And there’s that whole thing about ‘not letting your left hand know what your right hand is doing’; in other words, doing a kind act is best done quietly without saying that we’ve done it or bragging about it in any way.   

Planet Earth is an enclosed planet, the air we breathe out, someone else is breathing in and it has always been so.   We are still breathing the same air as those who walked the planet thousands of years ago.  And so, it is with kindness, it tends to be the case that if we are kind to others, they are kind to us, though this is not a reason to help someone.   The only reason to help someone is because it feels like the right thing to do in that moment.   And there is the joy of giving, giving or helping purely because it feels such a good thing to do.   And in his famous prayer, St. Francis of Assisi says, ‘it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning we are pardoned’.

So, in the words of the old song, ‘if I can help somebody as I pass along, If I can cheer somebody with a word or song, then my living shall not be in vain’.   It’s a new day, a day to look out for helping someone as they pass along, you’ll be glad you did. 

Our daily spiritual practice

Photo by Zac Durant

Growing up in the West of Ireland in the nineteen fifties there was a lot of emphasis on spiritual practice.  Mass on Sundays, Sodalities, Processions, Benedictions, Angelus were all part of life.  Some of us found these practices to be very rewarding and life enhancing.  

However, time goes on and we live and learn and one important thing to learn is that spiritual practice doesn’t have to be a big deal.  It can be something as simple as saying ‘thank you’ before enjoying a good meal or taking a breadth to enjoy the setting sun.  A walk in the park enjoying the children having fun in the playground or the joy of the puppies dragging their owner’s arms as they pull on the lead, these can all bring us a moment of transcendence.  

For some, it can be the cycle to work and for others hearing that piece of music which gives them goose bumps transports them to a place of expanded consciousness, peace and joy.  

What is really important is to notice what it is that gives us joy, that moves us beyond our regular over-thinking activities to a quieter more relaxed moment. 

So, meditation, meditative walking, mindfully washing the dishes, can all be a moment of ‘Amazing Grace’.  In his loved little book ‘the practice of the presence of God’, Brother Lawrence writes: ‘The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the Blessed Sacrament’.

Many of us hold the idea that spiritual practice is separate from our ordinary lives but as we known in Our Spiritual Earth every moment offers the possibility for connection with the higher and better part of ourselves. 

Feed the birds

Did you feed the birds this morning?  In wintertime they really need feeding as they cannot access food when the ground is frozen.  They also need water and it’s important to refresh this every day.

In the first lockdown many found they were aware of birdsong for the first time in a long time.  People found it soothing and heartening at a time of stress and worry.  In this time of global environmental crisis, it is more important than ever to feed our birds thus helping with bio-diversity and maintenance of bird species.

St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of the environment, is often pictured with birds and is known for his love of all earthy creatures.  Many of us love the song ‘Feed the Birds’ from the film, Mary Poppins and the lines ‘all around the cathedral the saints and apostles look down as she sells her wares; although you can’t see it, you know they are smiling each time someone shows that he cares’ would indicate that perhaps it’s not just us earthly beings who feel joy when we feed the birds.

In his book ‘Success is for You’, Dr David R. Hawkins writes: ‘The next easy practice that has profound repercussions throughout our entire inner nature is:  Feed the Wild Birds.  Yes, it is as simple as that.  Without fail we must make sure that there is food available for the birds even if we live in an apartment’.

Feeding the birds can become a joyful part of our morning routine and has many positive effects on ourselves and on Our Spiritual Earth. 

The simple things

Photo Todd Quackenbush

It’s the simple things really that matter.  When we get busy or stressed, we forget about them.  We forget how important it is to eat properly, get enough sleep, breath in that life giving fresh air, drink enough plain water.

In the busyness of preparing for a big event, say Christmas, a Confirmation Ceremony or a Wedding, we can forget that not attending to the basic simple things of life, we can become stressed and our immune system can become compromised.  We rush around madly trying to get everything done, perhaps living on coffee and sandwiches, staying up too late, letting go of our daily meditation practice, and letting our stress levels – and quite possibly our blood pressure too – get too high.

There is great wisdom is just doing the simple things.  Eating whole fresh organic locally grown food as far as possible.  Getting our full eight or nine hours sleep.  Going for our daily walk or swim.  Being aware of what presses our buttons and learning how to deal with that – responding rather than reacting.  And doing our spiritual practice, whatever that might be – a walk in nature, meditating morning and evening, or simply listening to music which transports us to another place.  

Rushing round doing stuff can come from our ego self while quietly attending to The Simple Things every day can help to keep us stress free, healthy and happy.  

An attitude of gratitude

Photo by Jackson David

“If the only prayer you every say in your life is thank you, it will be enough” says the great Dominican mystic, Meister Eckhart.

In the first world, we take so much for granted – fresh air, clean water, a safe place to live, and we don’t even notice it.  In Ireland many of us were brought up to say Grace before meals.  This simple practice was a way of remembering how the food came to be in front of us, to consider those who prepared it, bought it, packed the shelves in the supermarket, brought it to the supermarket and those – sometimes in faraway places – who planted the seeds and looked after the crops. 

We take each new day for granted, don’t notice the nice warm clothes we enjoy wearing, turn on the radio or tv without giving it a thought, accept the smile of a friend without even noticing.   But everything is a gift, a gift which many in refugee camps, or living in a war torn countries or one hit by a natural disaster don’t and can’t have in their lives. 

So, let’s be thankful for what we’ve got – our friends, our home, the warmth of a nice woolly hat on a cold day, the ease of switching on the kettle for a hot cuppa, a lovely warm shower. The Dalai Lama says “Today I am fortunate to have woken up.  I am alive, I have a precious human life.  I am not going to waste it.”  Let’s heed his words. 

Do Unto Others…

Photo Anna Earl

We at Our Spiritual Earth are convinced that to “do unto others as you would they do to you’ is the secret of a happy and peaceful life.  Much of the destruction of our wonderful Mother Earth and its human inhabitants has been as a result of our forgetting this Golden Rule.  Somehow, every time we do something to our own benefit but at a cost to another, we pay a price and they do too. 

There is an abundance of examples of this once we know where to look. For example, buying a new pair of jeans when we already have several pairs without realising that growing cotton for those jeans is destroying parts of our planet because the growing of cotton takes vast amounts of water.  On a more local level, using pesticides and insecticides on our land may increase our crops but it pours poisons into our air and water systems which effects our bees, birds, butterflies.  It is shocking that the label on the back of most drain cleaners says that the product may affect marine life. Happily, there is increasing awareness of the interconnectedness of all life on earth.  

Our own well-being and that of our family, friends, the earth and all its inhabitants is greatly affected by our choices so let’s wake up and see how best we can ‘do unto others as you would others do to you.” 

One Small Change

Oftentimes at the beginning of a new year or a new cycle of life we determine to make big changes. 

But the journey of a thousand miles starts with one step and one small change can make a big difference.  A small change like getting up half an hour earlier to watch the sunrise, or to go for a walk every day.  

A small change like eating some greens every day or buying only loose vegetables which have no plastic wrapping or drinking more plain water.  And how lucky we are to have clean water, fresh vegetables and clean air.  

Our ‘one small change’ could be simply to count our blessings at the end of each day and we may be surprised indeed at the difference that one small change will make in our lives and in the lives of others.