It was Emily Dickinson who wrote that ‘hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul - and sings the tunes without the words - and never stops at all.’
It is hope that has preserved us over the past few years. The dashing of it, the despair of it, and the eventual realisation of it, when the world and every community within, faced the bleakest of circumstance the likes of which we had never known.
We had liberty and creativity and expression curtailed; even the boost from human interaction was limited and made into an awkwardness that has unfortunately prevailed.
I love the wonder of tomorrow; the not knowing; the belief that maybe in the great raffle of life, my ticket might come up.
This time last year, we had renewed reason to have Hope, having had two years of extreme hardship; and we all felt that we deserved something after all we had been through.
But within a few weeks, all of that had changed and the heavy feeling was back in our souls, with the shocking death of Aisling Murphy, and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
Even in the past few weeks, the start to 2023 has been peppered with sadness; the number of violent deaths has been shocking in the extreme, the fear being that the more commonplace they become, the less impactful their horror will be on our psyche.
So maybe we expect too much for a changing of the year. We should free ourselves of the reckless hope that the sea will ever rest. We must learn to sail in high winds because such turbulence is the essence of life, the tos and fros, the flotsam and jetsam of human nature.
Within a few weeks, February will be here and with it, the shoots of Spring and the light of another growing season. In this, we will feel fuelled by the power of another Spring and have our hope renewed, because hope is the raw material that enables us to do things, to be creative, to be empathetic.
Hope lies in dreams, in imagination, and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality. This time of the year brings renewal. In sport, we see the rebirth of our city and county teams as they aim to nurture and build up hope for the season ahead. In this regard in Galway, we are fortunate to have some fine ambassadors and we wish the players and management well in all codes.
In terms of creativity, the works that will inspire and entertain us have their roots in the encouragement that Spring brings. One hopes that this innovation in art and in business and in social consciousness and enterprise reaps benefits for us all.
It is ok that the start of the year has been underwhelming and sad. This is natural, but nature too brings a bounce that we all must avail of, so that we can be the best version of ourselves for the year ahead.
There are many shoulders hunched at the time of the year. We gather ourselves in to protect ourselves against the wind and rain that is part and parcel of living on a rock facing into the Atlantic.
But over the weeks, we will loosen that grip, shed that hunched gait, and walk with more abandon to feel the heat of the Spring sun on our faces, solar panels for the soul, powering us on to another interesting time.
