The Mindful Farmers Daily Diary Day 406

Good morning everyone and welcome once more to Ballinwillin House Farm, gardens and RetrEat centre on day 116 into our latest lockdown. It is another Sunday and another beautiful day beckons but going back to the old Sundays in West Limerick, Sunday was always full of ritual. Early morning milking cows then the big wash before first mass at 8am. Put on your Sunday best suit, collect the glistening, polished black shoes from the previous night and all off to the Sunday mass ritual and everyone corralled into the appropriate church seat. This was ritual at its highest order like it or not. Now our new Sundays are bereft of ritual and custom and yet with our new found wealth and technology we can be haunted by loneliness and I believe we have unlearned the grace and beauty of presence and belonging, I am not being an old fuddy duddy here, I really believe we as a people need rituals to negotiate the vital crossings in our lives. So, on this beautiful Sunday do something traditional and be alive, be caring and mindful, send blessings and healings to all who need it and wear your Sunday best smile.

The Mindful Farmer

Patrick