Tir grá – a love of where you’re from

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Good morning. The County Monaghan poet, Paddy Kavanagh, wrote that “God is in the bits and pieces of everyday. A kiss here, and a laugh again, and sometimes tears”. A deeply rooted man, Kavanagh had no time for a spirituality that didn’t deal with the reality of life as it is. His poems reflect a deep connectedness with the people and places that make up life. What we call in the Irish language, tir grá – a love of where you’re from. When I was younger, this wasn’t something that I could identify with. My life always seemed to be defined more by where I was going, rather than where I was from. And that’s no bad thing: we all need to explore the world in all its richness and diversity – low-cost air travel has opened the entire world to us, in a way that was unimaginable to previous generations, who often lived and died in the same place. Maybe for me it was only in leaving the small rural place where I am from, that I was able to re-discover it again. There is a bit of a paradox in life, it is only in going away, that we can come back. It is only in missing things, that we can discover them anew. T.S. Eliot wrote that: “the end of all our exploring, will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time”. So, this morning, I pray for fresh eyes with which to see the world – and for a fresh appreciation, that I may have the openness to embrace, a kiss here, a laugh there, and yes, sometimes even to the tears. Amen.