Beannachtaí Trasna are the words that leave me, they waft and wend their way to you from my acre in Ireland to your acre in Lowell and beyond, through earth, sea and sky…they mean Blessings Across. Happy New Year to all as December cedes to January, another year turns. We are at a crossing over place. Janus like we face two ways, reflecting on the journey taken, and the hope spring of the route ahead. All is muted as Covid grips our world, it’s a multi- headed beast and these are challenging times, we must dig in and dig deep. Know that we dig together.

I am reminded of the young people who left these shores and crossed the stormy Atlantic trasna na farraige in the first few decades of the 1800’s to carve out their futures in Lowell. They dug deep, metaphorically, and literally, formed homes from wattle and daub, gouged out canals for industry while the mill girls created and demanded more for their brethren. Their acre then became a Famine refuge to their kin and by their example Lowell attracted many nations. Such is the tapestry woven between the steeple of St Patrick’s Catholic Church and the golden dome of the Holy Trinity Orthodox Church. They are the ancestors, and we stand on the shoulders of giants.

Knockroe Passage Tomb, Co. Kilkenny

I spent the last few days at Knockroe Passage Tomb, another crossing over place, between Tipperary and Kilkenny, this world and the next. This 5,000-year-old tomb sees the sun illuminate two separate stone chambers at both sunrise and sunset on the Winter Solstice, the only place for a Druid as the year turns. In a lifetime I’ve only ever witnessed both sunrise and sunset at the solstice twice, so I always spend time there in reverence and ritual. My ritual is simple, I thank my ancestors for the wealth they have bestowed upon me, I reflect on the learnings of the year gone by and leave down the load I no longer wish to carry with me. Then with candle grasped in hand I name my quest for the year ahead and wait for the star of hope and promise to rise within me and trust myself to it.

We leave much behind and carry on in the spirit of hope and renewal. This is what we are charged to do, and we must believe that we can do, because the ones that went before us, they carried on so that we could too, and we carry forward because some day we will be ancestors as well. May our legacy be a positive one. A Celtic Druid Blessing for 2022

Deep peace of the running wave to you.

Deep peace of the flowing air to you.

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.

Deep peace of the shining stars to you.

Beannachtaí Trasna,

Mawie

Mawie Barrett is an emerging writer. She grew up in the Comeraghs in Co. Waterford and defines herself as a mountain woman. She believes that there is a language in landscape that seeps into her by osmosis and fires her imagination. Her work is sprinkled with metaphor; the ordinary everyday event trickles out of her subconscious and tells the deeper story. Her forte thusfar is history, which she expresses in fiction and nonfiction and she has had history articles published as well as a few short stories. Writing brings Mawie great joy and expression, it is the place where she channels her insights and reflections. Nature, people and travel are her major influences. She blogs too, and you can discover more at www.druidscribe.com