Fr La’s weekly ‘Pause and Ponder’ from along the Pilgrim Path at Lough Derg. This week’s reflection is called ‘Fir Trees First’.

Fr La reflects

Fir Trees First 

A cold, wet start today at Patrick the Pilgrim.

I am kitted out for the weather,

but the rain is heavy.

I pull up the hood and I take to the Path

eyes down, avoiding the puddles.

By St Brigid’s Well the downpour has ceased.

I can lower the hood and lift my head.

At once, my eye is caught by a soft bright green:

fresh growth on the tips of a Nordmann fir.

Further on I spot another and, soon, more here and there.

And I notice that my heart, too, has lifted 

and on a wet Sunday in the middle of January

I am savouring just a taste

of the spring that must be on its way.

The firs have felt it first.

Fr La Flynn, Prior 

25 January 2021