And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Time, devourer of all things, the Roman poet Ovid wrote in his Metamorphoses in the 8th century, his epic poem in which he retells more than 250 mythological tales from the world’s creation to Julius Caesar’s deification. Their central theme is change and transformation, as well as the power of imagination and storytelling.

The idea that time makes things disappear has been described by many Western poets, writers, and philosophers.

This weekend, I am at a seminar for family carers of people with traumatic brain injuries, organised by the Hannelore Kohl Stiftung, a foundation set up in memory of the wife of the late Helmut Kohl, the German Chancellor of the re-unificagtion. Two nights in a hotel with a full seminar programme and time to explore the town, Bad Bevensen.

It’s a Spa town with a “Kurgarten” with all sorts of attractions, including a Strudelwirbelspirale producing a little ‘tornado’ in a water cylinder, and walls of mirrors making it hard to place persons and objects in space.

There are, of course, also the Thermal and Spa Baths with several inside and outside pools of warm saltwater. And, of course, the baths are fully accessible with incredibly spacious private shower and changing rooms for wheelchair users, special bath wheelchairs, and lifters to get into the pools.

Last week, we also went back, for the first time in years, to the newly renovated Enable Ireland Swimming Pool in Sandycove, which was as accessible and well equipped as the Bad Bevensen Spa.

Enable Ireland who had been closed for the past few years, like the accessible CRC pool in Clontarf. Just that they had taken the opportunity to upgrade their changing rooms to a level that is truly unique in the country, whereas the CRC hasn’t changed much for decades. For example, rather than being able to use a handheld shower after swimming, you have to move the wheelchair around the shower trying to meet the water coming from a shower head fixed on the wall. It would be comical if it wasn’t so real.

Last week, Pádraig went to vote in the local and European elections. He has done that every time elections came up since his accident and he is so proud of being able to make his voice heard.

He also went to see Lankum in Kilmainham for the first time.

Pádraig hears the music and is dancing with us. More and more people will being hearing the music and rather thinking strange things about us, they will realise what they have been missing.

Time devours everything but even when we are all gone, the world will have changed for the better. That change will remain. Always.