It’s the every-day stuff, the things that you don’t see anymore, you don’t hear anymore, you don’t feel anymore, you don’t taste anymore, you don’t smell anymore because they are so familiar that they pass by unnoticed.

Like this message from an automatic ticket machine in Dublin Airport telling me that “Change is possible”. ” YSE, it is!” I thought.

I needed this re-affermation today because, to be honest, I feel absolutely exhausted and tired. Christmas was fabulous and being in the company of so many good friends and family members was exactly what I think Christmas is all about. But the last two weeks or so, without carers to help, was also very tiring. And as always, it’s when you stop, when it’s over, that you feel the exhaustion.

Pádraig went with us today to the airport again to say good-bye, this time to his uncle.  The amount of people leaving Ireland after the holidays was phenomenal. So were the queues. We spent almost two hours waiting for the check-in, getting a real feel of what it means for so many to leave family behind to go to very far away countries to make a living. For all of us, including Pádraig of course, it was much more, for the second time in just a few days, than just getting out of the house for a few hours. It was experiencing this deep, sad, hurting feeling of people leaving their loved ones. First hand.

Some things are beyond our control. We can’t influence or change them. But there are things we can. Change is possible. And we’ll demonstrate that to all who want to listen, to see, to taste, to smell. To all who want to discover the ordinary every-day stuff for those living extraordinary lives. With an emphasis on ‘living’.