Hundreds take part in Offaly Canal Camino Way Walk

To celebrate St. Brigid's Bank Holiday weekend, I walked a Midlands Camino of 22 Kms along the banks of the Grand Canal from Tullamore to the top of Croghan Hill for Holy Mass and raise some funds for the Irish charity Self Help Africa.

It's a Midlands Camino walk I do and have done usually to celebrate St. Patrick's Day for the past six years but this year we decided to do  it in honour of St. Brigid's Day. I walked and prayed that day for anyone that has asked me to pray for them, most especially for some members of my family that are unwell and are in hospital and some who are awaiting treatment and also for some close friends who are hurting and grieving and have asked me to pray for them. 

I also prayed and laid blessed flower wreaths at Fiona Pender's memorial and at Aishling Murphy's memorial and remembered their families and all women and families affected by violence and loss in their lives and in our country and in our world. I have also been praying for every young and old person that has exams (Junior and Leaving Cert and University exams) coming up later this year that all will go well for them during these sometimes stressful exam times.

I also offered up my prayers for all the families and people that have been affected by the evil atrocities in Ukraine, Ethiopia and in 30 other countries where conflicts are taking place and I am praying that we may have real peace on this beautiful country and planet of ours which at times has become an ugly and indeed evil place to live. Also these last few days I have been praying for the countless people of Turkey, Syria and Lebanon and other neighbouring countries affected by this awful earthquake and where so many people have lost their lives and livelihoods.

Also I have prayed continuously for all the emergency workers, the carers, nurses, doctors, gardai, coastguards, teachers, ambulance people and first aiders and responders, religious and all people involved in any work that cares for those in need and especially for help and support to our homeless and those most in need in our country and world. I also remembered all my colleagues in work and the people and children we work with and for in many countries in Africa especially in East Africa after the dreadful drought affecting close on 36 million people that our work may bear fruit for all the families we work with and for. The following are some of the thoughts that came to me while reflecting and walking my Midlands Camino journey along the Canal to Holy Mass on Croghan Hill where I had much time to think about life and some of the lessons that it has taught me so far.

Thoughts on The Way

Life can be so unfair and heartbreaking at times. But life can be good too, I have a loving and caring family and also some great and genuine friends that have and are helping me on my life's journey. I wish you who are reading this, a good family and friends too, because they really are a life blessing. Friends all the same do come and go, the real ones stay around or are part of your life when you really need them. Nurture the good ones. Buy them a drink or a meal now and then and tell them how you really feel and their honesty will help you be you. Being kind, caring, compassionate and loving really matters in life. When in doubt or afraid, just take one day at a time and try to live in and for the present moment, one step at a time.

Life can be very short. Love and care as much as you can, for the time allotted to you is never known. It's ok to be different and to have different views and beliefs once you respect others. Not everyone will agree with you, but the people who care about you will still care about you even if they don't agree with what you say or do. Know that God will always care about you and love you. Sometimes tomorrow never comes. Don't become settled, always try to strive for better. You are always good enough if you put your mind to it and believe in yourself and your goodness. It's okay not to feel okay but it is always okay to ask for help or support. Don't be afraid to cry or shed a tear or to let a loved one especially your spouse and children see you cry, it can make a difference to them and can bring healing to you and your loved ones. You can be right and you can be wrong. Not everyone will agree with you even if you are right or wrong. Keep a diary of all the good memories. P

rint off your photos from your phone, digital camera and computer, don't lose them! Tell the truth it really does set you free, I know I have experienced it. Don't be a walkover or too easy going. Be as strong as you can be in everything you do or want to do. You don't have to win every argument or discussion or football or hurling match. It's okay to give off to God whoever you believe God to be. Thank God for your blessings and ask for strength for your journey of life. Say thank you often. Pray often. I love Our Lady Queen of Peace. Don't go to bed or let the sun go down on your anger. Don't be jealous of others, always try to be thankful for the blessings you have in your life and cherish them for you have no idea what it's like to walk in another's shoes. Whatever you do, don't take part in secret relationships, they will destroy your soul forever. Go after your dreams at all times when you can, especially if it involves genuine love and care. Try to do and be what you love. Be aware and work on your problems if you have them and always look for a good and speedy resolution for them.

Always keep trying and moving forward. Always consider the power of your words carefully as they can hurt for real. Look at things from every angle before you make a decision or a statement for they too can hurt. Always pray for others intentions and if you're like me, always light a candle for someone, I believe that candles really work. Candle lighting daily from me for everyone's intentions. Live for today and the present moment as it is special and real for tomorrow might never come. Make everyone of your days here on earth count for the good of yourself and for others. Choose life and love for something can be lost and gained in living life everyday. Go to your doctor for check ups and look after your health, no one else will. Help your family, friends, neighbours and your work colleagues always or as much as you can for they are central to your life. Don't worry about what people think of you. Love you and then you will be able to love others. If you want something ask for it because if you don't the answer will always be no. Don't judge others or compare yourself to others, work hard at being you.

Reflect on your life. Wake up, get up, clean up and show up in everything in life and make the most of it as much as you can. Never give up or give in and always give it especially in life, your best shot. Don't put pressure on yourself. It's okay to say No. Dwell, Pray, Breathe and Listen to Music. Enjoy Nature and the fresh air as much as you can. Walk or run or do both. Be active physically, mentally and spiritually if you can.  Life can surprise you. Meditate and keep the Serenity prayer always close by so that you can have the courage and the wisdom to be the person you want and can be. Always as much as possible express your thanks and gratitude to people who have helped you along life's way. To forgive or not to forgive is one of our life choices, I think from my experience in life it is always more freeing to forgive. Don't give part time people in your life a full time position in your head.

Don't spend time hating or being envious. Try to always look on the good and bright side of life. Take chances in a good sense. Always remember that no matter what you do in life, there is no greater thing that you can do than to love someone or care for someone or be there for someone. Be that someone, for that is what life is really all about at the end of the day! Real genuine Love is and will always be the answer to this life. Many people are struggling, disturbed, bothered and distracted in themselves, so we need to be sensitive, caring, sympathetic and understanding. If we only understood the difficulties and troubles some people experience, we would treat them with much more care, compassion, mercy, tolerance and understanding. No one knows what goes on behind the four walls of some homes. Our job in life is not to judge.

Our job in life is to give a helping hand to someone in need, to lift up the fallen, restore the broken, heal the hurting and wounded, understand the difficult one, and forgive the troublemaker. A few kind words, a prayer or a lit candle can help a person more than you think. Your good deeds, no matter how small, humble or unappreciated, do matter, so keep doing them for the most part actions speak louder than words. Do your little bit of kindness and good wherever you are; it is those little bits of kindness and good put together that overwhelms the world. Good people bring out what is good in others. Anyone can find faults in others. Always look for the good in others. Be the one who can find the gold, the treasure within. We are all called to be good people. Let's all do the best we can.

Striving Towards

My walk reinforced to me the idea that in life, it’s about the journey, not the end result. As I walked I realized that this might be the last time that I would ever take part in a pilgrimage like this, so I needed to savour the experience. I thought, “This is it, the moment I have worked so hard for.” I needed to enjoy the walking experience, not wish it away and especially because it is in one of my favourite places in the whole world and what an experience it was with many epiphanies and very spiritual moments along with some hardships but I enjoyed every minute of it.

Sometimes keeping positive is difficult and prayer becomes very basic, ‘Please God get me to the top of this hill’, 'Please God stop the pains in my legs and head' or 'Are we there yet God?' But walking towards the end goal of Holy Mass, following signs, arrows and directions, remembering that for centuries others have walked on these paths and carrying prayers and intentions for everyone I know or who asked me and thinking of all my ancestors and thanking them for the love they gave in their life so that I could be where I am today was a tremendous experience, allowing the physical experience to become the prayer, the weight of the backpack, the aches, blisters and pains, the warmth of the sun, the beautiful and bountiful wildflowers and trees, birds, choruses of frogs, bells ringing in my ears at times from bicycles, cows and churches, amazing scenery, sharing a meal, sharing a burden, realizing that the other many people I encountered all have one thing in common, we were all pilgrims on the journey of life. Often we wish our lives away, wanting to reach a certain place in life in order to be happy. However, oftentimes the satisfaction derived from setting an objective is not so much in attaining the objective, but in the anticipation and striving toward the objective.

So, as much as possible try to enjoy the journey as much as the end results as I did with my walk attempt. The journey itself makes you a pilgrim. Because the walk along the Canal to Croghan Hill is not only a track to be walked in order to get somewhere, nor is it a test to reach any reward. The walk is a parable and a reality at once because it is done both within and outside one's body in the specific time that it takes to walk each stage and along your entire life if only you allow the Midlands Camino to get into your head, heart and soul to transform you and to make you a pilgrim on the journey of life. The Midlands Camino for me calls us to contemplate, to be amazed, to welcome, to share, to care, to internalize, to stop, to be quiet, to listen, to challenge, to risk, to admire, to love, to pray, to bless nature, to bless family, friends, colleagues and companions on the journey of life, to bless our own life journey and to be always thankful to our God.

It’s Mental!

Walking the Midlands Camino or taking part in a challenging event is as much a mental challenge as a physical one. Yes, there is intense hard work that must be done in order to be physically prepared for the Midlands Camino when it comes along, but when the later miles arrive, and your legs begin to complain after making the same repetitive movements thousands upon thousands of times, it’s up to the mind to override the urge to quit. It's up to your mind to block out the negatives either in your own mind or in the minds of people around you. You must figure out some mental techniques to apply in order to keep from quitting, whether that’s mentally dividing the walk into sections like I did over the Midlands Camino journey, doing each mile for someone’s intentions or a loved one in your life as I did or chatting with other pilgrims along the way and encouraging one another to keep going but to also try to enjoy the journey.

Similar strategies can be applied to everyday life. We may face difficult life situations that require mental toughness, but we can make it through many stressful periods if we just find the mental strength necessary to continue onward. Everyone needs a challenge in life. Not everyone wants the challenge of walking the Midlands Camino (although it's a great challenge with some of the best scenery in the world), but everyone needs some sort of challenge, nonetheless.  Too much challenge or difficulty can result in frustration, but so can a lack of challenge. Challenge is necessary for a person’s spirit to emanate and to emerge. It is a state achieved when a person is completely absorbed in an activity, usually one that is challenging, yet not at a level of difficulty as to cause frustration. Achieving this spirit involves a delicate balance between the difficulty of the task at hand and the skill of the person working on it. A

chieving this spirit from within regularly seems to be one element of being a happy person, and in order to experience this spirit from within us, it’s necessary to involve oneself in a learning experience that requires focus, concentration, and on the Midlands Camino walk I am sure I did find that spirit. In a challenging walk like the Midlands Camino, as in life, the key is just to keep going, even if that means going slowly. No matter how hard things get, even if there are many hills blocking your view of the ending line, there is usually an end in sight, if we just keep going forward. Life is difficult. We are pressured and stressed and pulled in various directions.

Amidst the rush and hustle of the daily grind, it can be easy to lose ourselves and forget what really matters. We get steered off course and put all our energy toward things that ultimately, when it really gets down to it, don't matter much at all. Remembering what really matters in life requires a conscious effort, and here's to each of us trying to live a life that really matters and that always love's and helps rather than hurts our fellow human beings!

Pace your Life

The walk along the Midlands Camino is beautiful, peaceful, energizing, spiritual, thought provoking, prayerful and at times relaxing to walk through the hills and roads and feel the peace and quiet and experience the joy of the beautiful scenery of the Midlands Camino. You see, spending time in nature is healing, energizing and brings peace and calmness into our lives while also re-connecting us to the world in which we live. We can walk or run in nature, sit in nature and swim in the waters of nature. We can do this out in the wilderness of   the Midlands Camino or in our home places in our local parks of which there are many in Ireland.

There is something awe inspiring about nature and we can feel most connected to this feeling in those wilderness places; the forests, rivers, waterfalls, oceans and mountains and we have them in abundance here in our beautiful country of Ireland as well as me witnessing many of them on my Midlands Camino journey. Yet this awe and inspiration is there in every space where nature is, from your garden to your local park, the canal walk from Tullamore to Dangan or the trail through the small wooded areas, forests and walkways all around the midlands. Nature is part of us and yet we can spend so little time in it. When we do, we feel a reconnection which is more than just the fresh air, exercise or beautiful sights, it also speaks to something in our heart and soul and helps give our life some real spirit and real hope for the future!!

Life and nature are similar concepts because nature is the study of how life acts and interacts within the circle of existence. When we take the time to examine the beauty of the world around us, we are able to see parallels within our own lives. One who is attuned with nature is attuned with the practice of living. All of nature moves in a spiral as do our personal lives. It is important to spend time in nature because in this way we can become attuned to its wisdom.

The Beatitudes of Walkers

In finishing let me leave you with The Beatitudes of the Walker that are helping me on my journey of life...1. Blessed are you walkers, if you discover that the “camino” opens your eyes to what is not seen. 2. Blessed are you walkers, if what concerns you most is not to arrive, as to arrive with others. 3. Blessed are you walkers, when you contemplate the “camino” and you discover it is full of names and dawns. 4. Blessed are you walkers, because you have discovered that the authentic “camino” begins when it is completed. 5. Blessed are you walkers, if your knapsack is emptying of things and your heart does not know where to hang up so many feelings and emotions. 6. Blessed are you walkers, if you discover that one step back to help another is more valuable than a hundred forward without seeing what is at your side. 7. Blessed are you walkers, when you don’t have words to give thanks for everything that surprises you at every twist and turn of the way. 8. Blessed are you walkers, if you search for the truth and make of the “camino” a life and of your life a “way” in search of the One who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. 9. Blessed are you walkers, if on the way you meet yourself and gift yourself with time, without rushing, so as not to disregard the image in your heart. 10. Blessed are you walkers, if you discover that the “camino” holds a lot of silence, and the silence of prayer, and the prayer of meeting with God who is waiting for you.

Thought for the week

As your thought for the week, keep going forward no matter what challenges life throws at you and don’t be afraid to give help and receive help as you make that journey through life and don’t forget to savor the experience as it is all about the journey when it comes to your life challenges!! We are all walkers and pilgrims on this journey called life. Let's use it to love and bless one another on the way!!

The following prayer has always helped me on my journey and maybe it can help you on yours!!! "Will you let me be your servant? Let me be as Christ to you. Pray that I might have the grace. To let you be my servant too. We are pilgrims on the journey. We are brothers and sisters on the road. We are here to help each other. Walk the mile and bear the load. I will hold the Christ light for you. In the night time of your fear. I will hold my hand out to you. Speak the peace you long to hear. I will weep when you are weeping. When you laugh, I’ll laugh with you. I will share your joy and sorrow. Till we’ve seen this journey through. When we sing to God in heaven. We shall find such harmony. Born to all we’ve known together of Christ’s love and agony. Amen."