Fr La’s weekly ‘Pause and Ponder’ from along the Pilgrim Path at Lough Derg. This week’s reflection – ‘Support Structure’.   

It was the fresh green growth that caught my eye:
wild woodbine on the move.
In a twisting caress the strands of an earlier season
embrace each other in mutual support.
Over the weeks to come the emerging shoots
will make similar progress to reach the light and air,
with helpful nearby shrubs to lend a hand.

Come July, in the full flush of growth
this mutual support structure
will have disappeared from view
in a welter of anonymous surrounding greenery.
What will then draw my attention irresistibly
will be the sweet unmistakeable scent
of the flowers we call honeysuckle.

But for now this underlying structure is on view,
and I pause and ponder.

Fr La Flynn, Prior

19 April 2021