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

Muddy Tracks

After days of rain, the going is soft

in several places along the Pilgrim Path,

and the mud holds signs of some recent traffic.

Here, sunlight and shadow highlight several tyre tracks.

There, a wide wheel has left an unmissable mark along the verge.

Here I see a boot (right foot, I think… ) and, yes – some doggy paws beside it.

And there one single paw alone beside a different tyre.

Then footprints that I cannot recognise:

some passing resident, perhaps, of shore or forest?

Another night of rain will wash them all away.

The scars of the closing year

will not so quickly disappear.

Fr La Flynn

28 December 2020