Time for us to plant the seeds of hope.

Spring has arrived in Dublin and with it, a new government and a new sense of hope. The sun now shines against the backdrop of a dark and black winter of discontent.  There is a sense of newness. Time for us to plant the seeds of hope.

Hope is the backbone of freedom

Nobody can change our quick wit. Hope is the backbone of freedom.  It was what Martin Luther King spoke of when he said those famous words “I have a dream”. We stand on the world stage and let us not forget that we are a creative nation. Our poets and writers inspire many. The world cannot get enough of our comedians. They are a source of sunshine to us all.

Hunting the black dog of depression away

Roddy Doyle another great creative Irishman showed us the black dog of depression at the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Dublin. It was great fun. The mangy looking dog tried to bark his last bark but he is a skeleton barking in the darkness.  There is a sense that the nation’s mood is changing. Colour is creeping back ready to attack the darkness of that mangy dog.  It is the colour of creativity and of imagination urging us to find and take back our funny bone, our sense of humour. It was Eleanor Roosevelt that said “nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent”.

This new government is a few weeks in office and President Obama says “Yes I can come to Ireland”.  A sense of hope.  We are worth visiting. They may say that we don’t have any money.  But the grass still grows as green as ever. The sky is still blue and the stars twinkle at the end of the day beside the moon.

There is a change in people’s mindsets

They want hope. They need hope. Spring has arrived, a time when new seeds of hope are being planted, and with it, a sense of newness, of sowing seeds and nurturing what we already have.

A sense of hope, the backbone of freedom.