For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
Steve Jobs

Steve was clever.

On this one, however, he might have missed the point.

Most people recognise when they need to change something.

Few people actually do change what they know they should.

In a bit more than two weeks’ time, millions of people will decide to eat better, get more sleep, spend more time with their families and friends, exercise regularly, and live their lives in a more sustainable way. Wear sunscreen. And not for the first time. They do it every year. And in most cases, their New Year’s resolutions won’t last.

On the second Sunday of Advent, last Sunday, Pádraig went to our church’s annual Carrol Service. The church was packed with people all getting ready for Christmas, celebrating Advent – the time for hope, for preparation, and for new beginnings. It was a fantastic night with thoughtful prayers and poetry, a short organ concert, and beautiful singing by a soloist and two excellent choirs. Only when we checked out the programme did we realise that all proceeds from the night will go the Merchant’s Quay Project working with homeless and to the An Saol Foundation – which made the event even more rewarding and moving.

Early in the week, we went to see Pádraig’s absolutely fantastic new optician who is fitting his new glasses and who came up not just with a new way to keep his eyes open, but also with a frame, that could be used as an ordinary glasses frame as well as sunglasses with magnetic pop-on shades.

How cool is this?

Later in the week, Pádraig went back to some of his old haunts in Berlin and, of course, to the Christmas markets. We had decided to travel by public transport. So once we had arrived in Berlin’s new BER airport, we took a train towards our hotel. We only had to change once, Dr Google suggested.

What Dr Google did not know was that the lift on the platform in Bahnhof Friedrichstraße was broken.

Having consulted with Deutsche Bahn over the phone, the intercom, and with a real person who eventually turned up on the platform, we were told to wait for the next train, go to the next station and continue our journey from there.

Despite it being a cold and windy night, we decided not to take any more risks once we had managed to get off the platform at the next station. Instead we decided to follow Dr Google’s directions and walk the 30 minutes to our hotel. Well – we hit several stairways we had to circumvent and were sent down some muddy paths through a pitch dark Tiergarten.

Needless to say, we did not feel very welcome in Berlin.

We hoped for a better day. And we were rewarded.

We went to the Christmas markets around Alexanderplatz, to Europe’s biggest Department Store, the KaDeWe on Kurfürstendamm where Gucci invited us to “share love” (!), and to the Olympic Pool in the former East of the city where he had trained and competed during his transition year with Germany’s best. We did not stay in, but past the Berlin-version of the famous Waldorf Astoria. We saw the two flags on German’s conservative CDU headquarters pledging to stand with Ukraine and Israel.

The pool, with several 50m pools and a dedicated jump pool, had not changed and was as impressive as ever. The lift down to the pool, unfortunately, also was as small and ready for a deep clean as ever.

The visit that really moved me was to the German Resistance (!) Museum dedicated to those who had opposed Hitler and his helpers during the very dark hours of German history. It’s in the very place where Stauffenberg and those who supported him were shot following their attempt to kill Hitler on 20 July 1945.

Amongst the items exhibited is a letter signed by Albert Einstein, Käthe Kollwitz, and Heinrich Mann, urging the democratic parties on the left to unite against fascism as the only way to defeat it.

Another document, a sermon by Bishop von Galen, “Krankenmorde”, describes how the Nazis killed those with disabilities who could not be rehabilitated, ‘cured’, and who were considered to be a burden on society, the people and the state.

Chilling.

We have changed and we live in different times.

Pádraig has a fulfilled life. He wants and can travel. He can do what we all want to do: be amongst people and enjoy life and company.

When I look in the mirror every morning I know, every day, what I want to do that day. I know I need to change something.

Demonstrate that life and living is possible even in difficult circumstances. Encourage people to give their best to support those who need their support because, on their own, they wouldn’t be able to survive. Because nobody is a burden. They ain’t heavy. They’re our brothers. And we’re strong. Strong enough to carry them, on a road from which there is no return. Everybody needs to know this.

If you share this message of hope and new beginnings, pass it on to your families and friends. Even, perhaps especially, to strangers.

Because that’s the change we need today.

And if we really want it. We need to be that change.