Saving Money

The 10 second rule:

Whenever you pick up an item in a shop with the intention to buy it. Spend 10 seconds asking yourself

• Do you really need to buy it.


• Do you really want it.


• Do you really like it.


• Could it be cheaper somewhere else.


• Is there another version that costs less.


• Why are you buying it.

Most of the time you will put the item back on the shelf.

The 30 day rule:

Whenever you are considering buying an item over a certain amount say €20 you simply write down the item you were considering buying and wait 30 days to see if you still want it. If you do then buy it. Most likely you will forget all about it or realise that you do not really want it.

A Clare Benediction

May the Lord show his mercy upon you;

May the light of his presence be your guide:

May he guard you and uphold you;

may his spirit be ever by your sided.

When you sleep may his angels watch over you

When you wake may he fill you with his grace.

May you love him and serve him all your days

Then in heaven, may you see his face.

Fat Fight

I could count the number of walking hours on one finger at this stage. I have been a bit under the weather for the last two weeks. A little health problem surfaced and completely took over my life. When these things happen we realise how much we take good health for granted. It cost me €60, a visit to the doctor and two days off work. The doctor is really a luxury at that price but I had no choice. I think I am on the mend and will be taking to the road ernestly in the next few days.
We had a visitor over the last week. It was a Jack Russell Terrier who we named Charlie. He was an absolute pet of a dog. Lorna who works with me found him wandering near the motorway in Leixlip on Sunday evening last. She put him in her car and took him home but could not keep him because she had two dogs of her own. She contacted PAWS the pet rescue crowd and they would take him but would send him to their place in Tipperary the following day. I thought it would be easier to have him here and try to find the owners so Charlie came to visit on Monday evening. He was such a pet, very well trained and just full of love and fun. He would not go to the toilet in the garden under any circumstances and had to be walked morning and evening. This job Lisa and Mark took to readily, he was easy to walk and seemed to go out of his way to please everyone. I made posters with his picture on them and yesterday evening Lorna was contacted by a woman who claimed him. Sadness in our house, he had really nudged his way into our lives with his wet snout. The woman who called had gone on holidays and left the dog alone in an apartment with her neighbour coming in to feed him every day. I could not believe it. I was worried that he would not be claimed and we would all be back at work and school next week and he would be alone. A dog like that needs company and locking him up in an apartment for whatever period of time was wrong. Enough said we had the honour of looking after him for a time and it was a pleasure.
My previous post was a difficult one. I dip into the Dali Lama every so often and I came across that passage in "The Art of Happiness". At first it seemed a bit far-fetched until I though of the eulogy by Sebastian Crean's mother at his funeral and realised that it was possible to embrace that prayer even in our own lives, in our world filled with so much hate greed and confusion we must aspire to something far removed from where we are at present. Seb Crean's mum did this at probably the lowest time in her life and rose above the dark forces like a phoenix from the flame. Of course it will still be difficult for her but she has faced the horror head on and her great strength will see her safely through.

I am getting my front garden done on Tuesday, it will cost a bit but will be worth it. It should tidy up the front a bit and I can put a nice flower border in.

The Eight Verses on the Training of the Mind

Written in the 11th Century by the Tibetan saint, Langri Thangpa. It reads in part:

Whenever I associate with someone, may I think myself the lowest among all and hold the other supreme in the depth of my heart!...
When I see beings of wicked nature, pressed by violent sin and affliction, may I hold these rare ones dear as if I had found a precious treasure!...
When others, out of envy, treat me badly with abuse, slander and the like, may I suffer the defeat and offer the victory to others!...
When the one, whom I have benefited with great hope, hurts me very badly, may I behold him as my supreme Guru!
In short may I, directly and inderectly, offer benefit and happiness to all beings; may I secretly take upon myself the harm and suffering of all beings! ...

This week after the horrific stabbing of Sebastian Crean in Bray, his mother gave the following eulogy at his funeral.

IN A CHURCH overflowing with young people for the funeral Mass of Sebastian Creane (22), the student stabbed to death in his Bray home, his mother Nuala Creane asked mourners to rise above fear, blame and anger, to cast out negativity and to honour her son’s life by “co-creating the most enlightened lives you can”.
In a composed, powerful and passionate eulogy at the Church of the Most Holy Redeemer, Bray, Co Wicklow, with her surviving son, Dylan, standing supportively behind her, Ms Creane explained how she had tried to rationalise “this incomprehensible act which took place in our home . . . this tragic incident which caused mayhem in all our lives and robbed D [Dylan] of a younger brother he was so proud of”.
Dylan, Sebastian and their friends Jennifer Hannigan and Laura Mackey had “faced a presence of demonic proportions that manifested through Shane Clancy”. Two boys died that morning when Clancy stabbed Sebastian to death and left Dylan and Jennifer – Clancy’s former girlfriend – severely wounded before taking his own life.
She noted the similarities between them. They were both 22; both had the same initials; both were entering their final year in college and looked set, even in these recessionary times, to have fruitful careers. “So many similarities. Yet on the morning of August 16th, my God of Small Things said to me, one boy represented the light, the other the darkness, as they both played their parts in the unfolding of God’s divine plan. And as a result, we – my beloved J [her husband James] and I – and all of you are faced with a choice. Do we continue in darkness, seeing only fear, anger, bitterness, resentment, blaming, bemoaning our loss, always looking backwards, blaming, blaming, blaming,” she asked passionately, “or are we ready to transmute this negativity? We can rise to the challenge with unconditional love, knowing that we were born on to this earth to grow.”
She also called on those present to support Jennifer Hannigan, asking them first to fill their hearts with memories of a happy moment in their lives and then to “bring your attention to Jen”. “She blames herself. Bathe her heart in that happiness and then forgive yourselves. The light that shone in Seb shines in you also, in its own special way. Let it shine and be at peace.”

Hartstown's gain

Next weekend in St. Mary's Parish, we bid a very sad farewell to our Parish Priest Fr Joe Coyne. Fr Joe has been in St Mary's for the last 7 years. He has been a good friend to me and many others and has touched the lives of many in the parish with his selfless attention to those bereaved or troubled in any way. I could fill this page with the good he has done, his passion for justice, his ability to laugh and joke and make light of a situation when frustration might have got the better of you. He leaves behind him a legacy of care and love.

"May God hold him in the palm of his hand".

Galway Radisson

Well here I am in the County Galway, its a long, long way from here to Lucan. We arrived on time and in a huge shower of rain we set off to find our hotel, they said it was opposite the railway station. Which exit? we walked around in circles in the said shower and finally, after asking several people, found the Radisson and checked in.
We were given our room on the first floor but when we got there to discover that it was a double bed and not a twin as we requested. We spoke to the chamber maid person and she phoned down to the desk and told us that they would be there soon. We waited and I was craving a cup of coffee or tea and to just settle in. Finally Anne said she would go to reception just after she left the chambermaid arrived and started to separate the beds, then Anne comes back and said we got another room. The room was a better class room with a fully stocked bar, granite lockers and just a nicer outlook really. We freshened up and settled in. Because it was raining we decided to stay put in the hotel and had dinner in the dining room, , I had a Caeser salad and Anne had Jambaylah. We had a good chat about all sorts of stuff and went to bed early. Now I am falling asleep, it has been a long time since 6.20 this morning and I have travelled the breath of the country twice. Now its beddy byes so goodnght one and all.

Leaving Cert

I was up at 6am this morning. Leaving Cert results were out and when someone near to you is getting results you cannot escape the stress and anxiety that goes with it.
She and I went to the school with friends and the girls all met up and went in one door together and came out another door at the back. I stood and watched my daughter walking across the school yard towards me. Her face was such a mixture of sadness and misery I knew there was no room for words, I just put my arms around her and held her. She took out the sheet which displayed various different B' and C' and all she could say was that she did not do so well in Classical Studies, her favourite subject. There was no consoling her, the results seemed ok to me and her friends tried to boost her up. We could not get home quick enough to tot up the points and when she did it was a lot better than she had thought. She got the points she needed and more left over.
I am heading west this afternoon to visit the parents they are keeping well and over their health scares of earlier in the summer.

Fat Fight

I have committed to do the Camino de Santiago de Compestella next year. The Camino involves walking approx 12 miles a day for 7 days. I am totally unfit, I weighed myself in tonight at 15 stone, but I know I am heavier. My son tried to convince me that the scales were right God bless him. I have been trying to motivate myself to go for a walk every day, motivtion is not that easy to come by sometimes. However, I managed to get the gear on and the shoes and get my butt out the door. I figured that if I tried a short walk (about 40 minutes) first and build it up over the weeks. 40 minutes became 3 hours. I called to visit Joan and then Anne and wandered home in the dark, but I enjoyed the walk and the new shoes I paid a fortune for, and was finding it hard to break in, felt a bit better tonight. I committed to the Camino for a couple of reasons but initially it was not really spiritual. I wanted to commit to doing something publicly that would force me to lose weight. As time went on I found reasons and people to do it for, I have a mental list of people and it is growing at a great rate.

My weight loss programme is simple and does not cost anything,

• Stop eating crap


• Walk

Any one who has been overweight for any length of time knows what they have to do to lose weight, it means getting in the right frame of mind and follow those two steps.

Tonight I watched a programme on TV about a 64 stone woman who wanted to have a gastric bypass. This woman was 29 years old and had spent most of the last few years not being able to move from the house or indeed the bed. She could not do anything with her two small girls who could only hug her arm if they wanted to be close to her. The gastric bypass went off well and during the first two months she lost 4 stone but unfortunately had a massive heart attack and died.

God rest her soul

Song of Songs

By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.
I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.
The watchmen that go about the city found me: to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?
It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.