Mám Éan, Connemara

This weekend we’re going to spend a little time with an old friend, John O’Donohue – he of the”beautiful gaze” and the peaks and valleys.

For the last two terms, we have been exploring the work of Ojibway writer (and former Burnaby resident!) Richard Wagamese.  As you have discovered, one of the Big Ideas in Wagamese’s work is that of connecting to place: connecting to the land and the landscape; learning from the natural world.  This weekend you will step into another perspective on this idea – one that brings us full circle to the beginning of the school year and our research into ancient Celtic traditions.

Your work is to listen to this recording of John O’Donohue hiking up Mám Éan Mountain in Connemara, in western Ireland.  While you listen, you’ll record your thoughts and then share your ideas, but first, please read the below instructions carefully.

1. The recording is about 45 minutes long – depending on your capacity right now to listen for extended periods of time, you may want to divide the listening into two shorter sessions.  At just after the 24:00 mark, the audio repeats itself for about a minute (up to the 25:20 mark), so that might be a natural spot to take a break, if you find you need one.
2. While you listen, please use your comp book to draw and write as you go.  This can be like sketchnoting; it can also be like drawing images that come into your mind and writing down words or phrases that you like or that have meaning to you.  Basically, draw what you hear.
3. When you are done, please take a picture of one part of your drawing/notes that you like – not the whole thing; just one section that for whatever reason you like.  Send me that picture.
4. Then, take a moment to organize your thoughts into a comment, using “Leave a reply” at the end of this post (class names only, please!).That comment might be about something like:

• sharing an idea you liked and explaining why
• connecting O’Donohue’s ideas to Wagamese’s
• explaining how this changes the way you think about and/or experience the landscape around you
• explaining how this changes the way you think about the landscape within you
• explaining why – for you, or for the world – this way of thinking might be useful or meaningful

You’ll come across some of the vocab we explored the last time we listened to O’Donohue – but here are a few more bits that might be useful to know before you begin:

Nonchalant – having an air of easy unconcern or indifference

Zen – a state of calm attentiveness in which one’s actions are guided by intuition rather than by conscious effort (related to Zen Buddhism)

Bog – a poorly drained usually acid area rich in accumulated plant material

Cadence – a rhythmic sequence or flow of sounds

The Twelve Bens – a mountain range in Connemara

Pathos – an element in experience or in artistic representation evoking pity or compassion

Anonymous – of unknown authorship or origin; lacking individuality or distinction

Cutting turf – in the past, Irish people heated their homes and cooked their food using turf taken from from the bog as fuel. Turf was cut from the bog by hand, using a two-sided spade called a sleán.

Sod – the grass-covered surface ground layer

Karl Marx – a socialist revolutionary

Dialectic – discussion and reasoning by dialogue as a method of intellectual investigation

If you are able to, after you listen, go back outside and take a look around.  If you are able to go to a place where you can see the North Shore mountains, do that, too.

How has your perspective shifted?  What do you see now that you didn’t before?

I go among trees and sit still.
All my stirring becomes quiet
Around me like circles on water.
My tasks lie in their places
Where I left them, asleep like cattle…

Then what I am afraid of comes.
I live for a while in its sight.
What I fear in it leaves it,
And the fear of it leaves me.
It sings, and I hear its song.

~ Wendell Berry

The Mám Éan Pilgrimage Walk

“Moon Over Maam Valley,” by Fergus Bourke