I would be celebrating my brother Johnny’s 71st Birthday on August 9th this year but he died of Covid five years ago. I still cannot believe he is no longer with us.

I often try to connect with him since he has passed. The Celtic tradition speaks of the “thin places,” places where the spirits of the dead move between heaven and earth. I believe our memories, our dreams, and our quiet reflective times are such places and we can discover these places. On Johnny’s birthday I will remember the Celtic Saying: “ Heaven and earth are only three feet apart, but in thin places that distance is even shorter.”

I think I am genetically wired to appreciate the thin places found on my very recent trip to Ireland. My Irish grandmother believed and appreciated the mysteries of Ireland’s thin places as told by my father. Johnny believed in them too. The thin pIace I recently found in Ireland last month was the rugged beauty of the Cliffs of Moher. It was a divine and sacred landscape with breathtaking scenery. I felt Johnny’s presence and wished him an early Happy Birthday.