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

Some weeks ago it is since first I noticed,

just over the stile, as the Path begins,

these shattered eggshell fragments. 

Each time I pass the question comes again:

What happened here? From where might this have come?

Today I come upon another case:

before me on the Path beyond the well

a broken eggshell.  I stoop to look and ponder.

Did the cuckoo rob this egg from a cosy nest

to leave a greedy uninvited lodger?

Or was it just a tidy mother bird

clearing her home after her chick had hatched?

Now past the quarry a third case comes to light.

Below the Path a white egg takes my eye –

unbroken, it seems, but when I look

I find the inside empty and I wonder: 

What fellow forest creature has been fed?