Water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing, in the end, can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone.
Margaret Atwood

It took a bit of an effort but I got up early yesterday morning and went for a walk when the sun was about to rise. It was that time of the morning when it is no longer night but not day either. When the birds start singing but most people are still in bed.

It had rained during the night and the ground was still wet. There was a smell of damp in the air. Because it was not as cold as it used to be earlier in the week. I could see the first buds on the cherry blossoms. Spring is no longer just in the air.

There is a walk I take down to Griffith Park, across a little foot bridge, through one of the pedestrian side gates that is newer locked, and along the Tolka River.

It might sound cheesy to say this, but I felt happy. Happy to be able to walk, breathe, hear the sound of the water, hear the birds singing, see nature coming back from winter into spring time, even the man with his little plastic trolley restocking supplies in the Tram Café beside the playground.

Whatever did it, all the misery of the world, all the troubles in my life, all the injustice, frustrations, and even that feeling of utter helplessness – it all disappeared.

For no reason, I was the happiest man in the world.

I was so happy that I promised myself to remember this moment, because I knew it wouldn’t last forever.

I wonder whether this is how Pádraig feels like sometimes? Really happy to be around people? Real happy to go to see his favourite musicians? Really happy to go for walks, go shopping, go to meet up with friends? Really happy to stand, stretch, cycle the MOTOmed? Really happy to have this massive impact on disability rights, on the incredible change he is inspiring on the health system? Really happy to be a game changer and a trailblazer?

He has been practicing a new communications device he has on loan from SMARTBOX to try it out – with a view to buy it. He is using it with a G-Click which is “a special switch that uses a minature solid state gyroscope. It offers zero-force switch operation by detecting tiny amounts of tilt, and auto compensates for any accidental position changes from the user”. You get the gist. Graham Law, an engineer and the owner of Celtic Magic, used to build rockets. Now he builds some of the most sophisticated access devices in the world from his lab in the East Midlands of England.

Both Pádraig and Graham are like that water that will always go where it wants to go, and nothing, nothing in the world can stop it.

We must set sail. Sail, not tie at anchor. Sail, not drift, as Franklin D. Roosevelt said.

Which is when we will discover the most amazing things life and the world have to offer.