The Threshold of Bealtaine and the Three Nourishments of the Road

Featured in this Episode:

• Echtra Condla (The Voyage of Condla): Told by Paddy Doyle
• The Black Hand: Told by Jim Brulé
• The Three Nourishments of the Road (A Butter Roads Tale): Told by Maria (Máire)

The "Hook"

In this Bealtaine episode of From Cork to New York, hosts Maria and Jim are joined by Cork storyteller Paddy Doyle to explore the sacred threshold spaces of life, myth, and community. Through the ancient otherworld voyage of Condla, a haunting Jewish parable of the Baal Shem Tov, and the folk wisdom of Cork's historic butter roads, this conversation reveals how shared narratives, song, and presence serve as the ultimate medicine for weary souls. Together, they invite us to step across the threshold, open our circles to the "more than human" world, and rediscover the life-saving magic of gathering around the hearth.

The Chapters

[00:23] Bealtaine and the Threshold of Hawthorn

Maria, Jim, and guest Paddy Doyle welcome the season of Bealtaine, discussing the magic of the blooming hawthorn tree as a portal between winter and summer, and this world and the next.

[02:30] The Sacred Practice of Cuardiocht

Paddy introduces Cuardiocht, the ancient Irish tradition of gathering with neighbors after dark to sit by the fire, tell stories, and share troubles, opening the human circle to the "more than human world."

[04:30] Echtra Condla: The Voyage of Condla

Paddy shares the mythic tale of young Condla, son of King Conn, who is invited by a radiant woman of the Aos Sí to journey to Mag Mell -- the land of eternal youth -- leaving behind his beloved father and mortal destiny.

[18:00] The Language of the Unseen

The hosts reflect on the archetype of the Spéirbhean (woman of the air) and how ancient Irish concepts like draíochta (magic) and bean feasa (wise woman) enrich our modern vocabulary of the soul.

[21:00] The Black Hand

Jim spins a poignant Jewish tale of Reb Schmerl, whose unchecked sins pollute a local lake, leading to a fateful prophecy about his son's 13th birthday and a mystical fail-safe involving two socks.

[31:00] The Butter Roads of Cork

Maria tells the folklore-rich story of Seán Óg, a young fiddle player who must discover the "three nourishments of the road" to win the hand of Saoirse, the wise woman's daughter.

[44:00] Discovering the Three Nourishments

On his long journey to Cork's butter market, Seán Óg encounters the first two nourishments: the communal joy of an Irish music session and the physical sustenance of a shared pot of stew.

[51:00] The Mother’s Hook and the Third Nourishment

Back home, Seán Óg’s mother rescues him from his ignorance, revealing that clann -- the community of people sharing their wisdom -- is the final nourishment of the road, leading to a three-day wedding feast.

[54:00] Building Sacred Community

Jim, Maria, and Paddy discuss parallel Moroccan rules of community, the cozy architecture of old Irish cottages, and the vital importance of preserving ancient words like Cuardiocht before they vanish.

Key Takeaways

• The Thresholds of Growth: Just as Condla had to leave his father's kingdom to step into his own sovereign power, true maturity requires us to honor our roots while possessing the courage to step onto our own "crystal ship" toward destiny.
• The Weight of Unaddressed Sins: Jim’s story of Reb Schmerl illustrates that throwing our dark deeds into the "lake" of unconsciousness only causes the waters to rise and boil. True healing demands repentance before our unaddressed shadow impacts the next generation.
• The True Nourishments of the Journey: The path of life is too heavy to walk alone. To survive the journey, we must actively feed on the three nourishments: the joy of creative expression (story and song), the medicine of the earth (shared food), and the wisdom of our elders and kin (clann).
• Cuardiocht as Medicine for Isolation: In an increasingly fragmented, digital world, reviving the practice of Cuardiocht -- actively seeking out and hosting deep, unconditional circles of connection -- is the ultimate antidote to modern loneliness.

Closing

Thank you for traveling down The Story Road with us. If this episode warmed your heart or sparked a memory, please subscribe to our Healing Monsters Substack for weekly essays on mythology, shadow work, and oral traditions.

We invite you to bring these stories to your own hearth and join the conversation in our global Transformational Storytelling Community. Until next time, be safe on the Story Road.

Hello from Cork.

Hello from New York.

Is mise Maire, an Seanchaí Corcaí.

It's Maria, the Cork-based storyteller.

It's me, Jim here in Fayetteville, New York.

We can't wait to tell you a few stories.

This is my first holiday I think in a long time because normally people

think we have one big, um, holiday of a life Jim, but we don't because

we're telling stories and it's our beautiful, enjoyable work, you know?

So being here with my family, not having storytelling to do is beautiful.

But also it has me out of my rhythm of, of storytelling and I miss my story.

Mm-hmm.

And my story children are back in Ireland going, where are you?

Where are you?

Oh, well I, I had been thinking about a story for today.

Oh, great.

It's an unusual story.

It's a Jewish story and I was trying to think of stories that

weren't known to Europeans.

There aren't many that I tell that are from what I like to call

Turtle Island, North America.

I know many of them, but I don't have permission to tell a lot of them

because they're indigenous stories.

So this one is a Jewish story, but I know people won't know

it or very few will know it.

And it's one of those stories where, we get asked, is that a true story?

And this is one of those.

And the people in this story are real people, and as far as we know,

all these things happened to them.

So there's a little bit of a clue.

And it's a Jewish story, and amongst these Jewish stories many

times there's a great rebbe who's kind of at the center of things.

And these rebbes were unusual people.

They had great knowledge, they had great wisdom, and they were

often said to be able to do really magical, mystical things.

And it wasn't their job, but they, they kind of had it

in their, their back pocket.

And so this story starts with one of those rebbes, it was Rebbe Levi Yitzhak

was his name, he was in Berdichev.

It was during a very difficult time.

The pogroms were really very active.

A lot of Jews were being sent to prison, killed, and it was

a terrible, terrible time.

And this one disciple of his, his hassid, which means disciple or

devotee, came to him and said, you know, Rebbe, you're just an amazing,

amazing person and my family is being held on the other side of the border.

I need to get them out 'cause they'll certainly die if I don't get them out.

So I need a passport to get in.

And Levi Yitzhak looked at him.

Now, this was a fellow who laughed a lot.

He was a very energetic guy, and at first he wanted to laugh because, I'm a Rebbe!

I don't have any connection to the government!

How am I gonna get you a passport?

And then he realized he was serious

and he said, Okay, um, wait a moment.

And he went into his office.

And it was quiet, and he sat there for maybe an hour waiting for him to come out.

And finally the Rebbe comes out and he holds up this blank piece of paper,

absolutely nothing written on it at all.

And he gives it to the hassid, and he says, Here: this'll

give you what you need.

And so he heads out, he thanks him and amazingly, doesn't even question it!

Just takes it and heads to the border.

Now, of course, the cossacks are standing there at the border and he's coming

dressed as a poor Jew, and they're, they're already aiming their spears at

him as he grows close, tell him to get away, and he holds up the piece of paper.

And the lead guard says, oh, oh, we, we didn't realize, oh, please come in.

Do, do you need a carriage?

We could get you a carriage and a horse to take you wherever you're going.

And so of course he said yes.

And they brought around this beautiful carriage and this

horse and a driver for it.

And they, he was driven to his family and they packed them all up and he made it

back out and everything went beautifully.

And he went back and he thanked the Rebbe and, and he said to him, you're welcome.

The story of this incident quietly spread, but nobody else came to the Rebbe.

Never.

Nothing ever happened until many, many years later during the Second World War,

there was another hassid of another rebbe.

This was the Rebbe of Munkatch, the Munkatcher Rebbe.

The hassid came to his rebbe and said, you know, my family is in Berlin and I

don't have to tell you how terrible it is.

They're hiding in Berlin.

I know where they are.

I need to go and get them out.

I need a passport.

And the Munkatcher Rebbe said, are you crazy?

I can't get you a passport.

And the hassid said, but Levi Yitzhak did one, surely you can do one for me.

And

the Munkatcher Rebbe said, I'm nowhere near the rebbe that the

Levi Yitzhak was, I can't do that.

And he said, You've gotta try 'cause my family is is gonna perish.

And so the Munkatcher Rebbe went into his office.

And this time it wasn't quiet.

The hassid was sitting out there and he could hear the rebbe crying.

And he could hear the rebbe wailing.

And the, the pain that he could hear through that closed

door was just astounding, and it seemed to go on for hours.

And finally he came out and he had a blank piece of paper, but it was soaked

with tears, just absolutely soaked.

And he said, Now, this will get you in.

But, he said, I can never do this again.

I, this just took everything I had to do this.

You can't tell anybody about this.

And so the hassid was very grateful and he made his way to the border, and once

again, the guards are ready to grab him until he held up the plank piece of paper.

And they said, Oh, we didn't realize.

Do you need a car?

We can get you a car and a driver.

And they drove him to his family in Berlin and they got them out and they were safe.

And the hassid,

you might have figured out by now, told somebody, 'cause I know the story.

Well, what happened was, he took that piece of paper that what's now called

the Munkatcher Passport, and he hid it in his desk, and he didn't tell anybody

about it until he was on his deathbed.

And his nephew came in to pay his respects and the hassid said, I have a, a last

request and you must fulfill it for me.

And he said, Sure, whatever it is.

He said, there's a blank piece of paper in my desk.

I want you to put it in my coffin before they close it up.

And his nephew looked at him and he said, that's not allowed.

I mean, you have to be buried simply, nothing accompanies you.

He said, Oh, you've gotta do this.

And he argued back and forth until finally his uncle told him the story

and the nephew looked at him and he said, So, okay, I, I understand,

but why do you want it with you?

And he said, well, if this would get me into Berlin, think what it'll

do for me in the World to Come.

Now, there's a couple things I'd like to say about that, but I,

you know, let's chat as well.

And one is this story which is told by famous rebbes now

Yeah.

was told to me by a descendant of the Munkatcher Rebbe.

And she told me this story, it's the first time I'd heard it,

mm-hmm.

as a family story.

This is the story that was passed down.

Um,

so that's one thing.

The other thing is, and this is important to me, you could

hear this story in many ways.

And, and one way you could hear it is in the faith of the disciple to the master.

What faith does it take to walk up to the enemy with a blank piece of paper?

But that's not the lesson , that's important to me out of that.

And I, in fact, I don't like that lesson.

What it says to me, and it's not well-formed, but it's along the lines of

even the invisible has power.

Yeah.

Even, even those amongst us who seem like we have no power

at all can change the world.

Yeah.

It's not a matter of faith in a piece of paper.

It's a matter of being able to see what's not seen.

So.

Yeah.

And there's, there's something very, um, shifting in the paradigm about that

gentle story that's really important, it feels to me and needed in today's world.

Mm-hmm.

Because we can feel there's only one road that we're all going down

and we're being led down that road.

And it reminds me of that very famous story of the black wolf and the white

wolf, and both of them live within us.

Right.

And which one survives?

The one you feed.

Mm-hmm.

So this is a feeding story and for me it's very much of

the vein of your legacy story.

Uh, it's one of these stories that you want to leave behind

you when you leave this world.

Yes.

And it's even in the story.

That thing is even in the story.

So I, I loved it, you know, and, um, and it feels like a needed story.

So thank you for that story today.

Thank you.

It was amazing.

You know.

I was just going to ask you, you said that there was other things that you'd like to

share about the story, so I was going to come back to that and say, what else would

you like to tell us about that story?

Well, so my teacher's teacher who,

I love that, yeah.

My teacher's teacher, uh, Shlomo Carlebach, of blessed

memory, he tells this story.

Yeah.

And I found it in his telling after I had learned it.

Yeah.

And he ends up telling it to say, and I'm gonna try and catch

his, his meaning clearly, that we have Munkatcher Passports between us.

Yes,

We have.

And he was talking about a, a couple, but he meant everyone that we have

exchanges that are without words or without concrete manifestation

and without transaction.

Yeah.

That's right.

And what we have to do is see those unseen things that someone

offers us and welcome them in.

Yes.

Yeah.

Um,

so I have a beautiful example of that that popped up on my Insta

today, and I would love my, um, Facebook and Instagram to always

have this kind of stuff on them.

There was a woman who had been away from Ireland for a number of years, more than

20, and she arrived to a supermarket.

She went up to the machine to pay her parking.

And a woman rushed up to her and she said, there's 30 minutes

left on my parking, uh, ticket.

Would you like it?

You know, she says, Would 30 minutes be enough for you?

And she said, Thanks very much.

And in gratitude, she put it out there into cyberspace.

And I thought, what a, what a beautiful thing.

That if we could do something gentle and, you know, connecting like

that between us on a daily basis, what a lovely world this would be.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

It, it's really, um, you know, there's this, I think wonderful and

it happens to be popular term now about living in a state of abundance.

And it's not that you have a lot of things

Yeah.

but that you're so ready to give what you have to someone else.

Yeah.

And that's what makes it abundant.

So that's a beautiful story in my mind of abundance.

Yeah, yeah,

yeah.

Like I, I remember hearing when I was in Canada, real wealth is

having stuff enough to give away.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

And I think it comes from the First Nations people.

It does, it

does.

Yeah.

So I, I love that, you know, and I've been saying that ever

since I came home from Nova Scotia, you know, but a lovely thought.

Yeah.

You know,

Well, there's another, a parallel saying, again, I'm sure it's a different

nation, but still a First Nation.

They, um, they don't have a word for garbage.

Yeah.

Because nothing is ever thrown away.

Yeah.

You know, everything is used in one way or another, even if

it's just fertilizer, you know?

Yeah.

Used, there's no such thing as trash or garbage or anything like that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh.

And we're struggling back towards that kinda stasis, you know?

Yeah,

yeah,

yeah.

May it happen, may it happen, you know, so, and um, and of course

as I was listening to your story, I was thinking all my stories are

at home in Ireland waiting for me to come back during this holiday.

But as you, as you were talking, um, a story came up in me.

It is the story of Muirne Muncháem, and she was the woman that carried

the very famous Finn Mac Cumhaill.

So this would've gone back to when she was a young woman before, as they would

say, he was a glint in his father's eye.

So, um.

So she finds herself the, the situation where Finn's story starts.

Of course her story starts long before this, but the story starts where

she is a beloved and well minded, uh, mistress of the caisleán, of the

castle, and her husband, um, Cool.

You know, 'cause it was Finn Mac Cumhaill.

It was, uh, Finn son of Cool.

He has been invited out to a battle, but they have laws and they believe that these

laws will be upheld, but on this occasion, that didn't happen, and her husband and

a load of their leaders were killed in a skirmish that they were not prepared for

because they were going to have parlay.

They were going to talk amongst one another.

So she fled.

And she has a fur coat over her and she's got a dagger in her belt,

and she has been a princess, Jim.

I mean, she is been reared to complete gentility.

And she's making her way across the Irish tundra, you know,

with these big, massive trees.

And in between them, these expanses of marsh and bog that would suck you

in and make you into a bog person to be discovered 2000 years down the

road and to be put into a museum.

So she's picking her way across this.

And because she's pregnant, she's very heavy with child,

her intuition is really up.

And because she knows that she has the seed of her people in her belly, and

her name is the Flower of Almhu, that's her nickname, because she knows that

the flower of the manhood has been cut down in its prime, and that everything

depends on what she has in her stomach.

She makes her way across this place, walking when she's not used to walking,

full of muck, when she's used to being bathed every day, you know?

Um, and all she has is her determination.

And she comes to a clearing where there is grass and there is a big gray rock.

She decides to sit up on that rock just for a little rest.

And she's sitting up on the rock and she's surveying everything and she

feels the air become electric, and she hears that the birds stop singing,

and everything in her becomes alert, and her hair crawls up the back of her

head as every hair on her arm stands.

Her breathing becomes shallow and she knows that she is being pursued.

She allows her eyes to go very slowly and carefully along the landscape.

And there she sees a pair of golden eyes looking back at her from gray fur, and

it is a sí mactíre, it is a She Wolf.

And everything in the She Wolf is pointed towards her, from the tip of its nose to

the extension of its tail, and every hair on the back of its neck is standing up.

And she knows in this moment it is her and her baby against the

survival of the wolf who is lean and hasn't eaten in a long time.

And she casts her eyes towards the trees.

They seem very, very far away.

And she cast eyes towards the wolf and she thinks if I run now, will I make

the trees before the wolf makes me?

And something ancient and gutteral fills her soul and she comes to a

standing position and she pulls out the dagger from her waist and she

sticks it on top of the staff that she's been carrying to make it look as

long as possible, as if it is a lance.

And she puts it over her shoulder and she makes her eyes as mad as she can

possibly make them, and she makes her voice as crazy as it can possibly sound.

She says, You or me wolf.

You or me?

And it's not going to be me.

And the wolf looks at her, and he puts his head down further and it

kind of takes two or three steps back.

And she thinks in this moment that Wolf believes I am bigger than it.

I am bigger than its life, but it will come for me.

Even though she's exhausted, she comes down from the rock and she looks once more

at the Wolf, and then she turns to let the Wolf know that she's not afraid and she's

not keeping eye contact with the Wolf.

And she begins to march, and she can feel the baby in her belly, and

she can feel that the time is near.

But she keeps going and she reaches the edge of the forest.

And she breathes a sigh of relief.

And she looks up to the branches and she wonders if she had to

climb, would she be able to climb now to get away from the Wolf.

And she keeps traveling all that night and all the following day until she comes to

the list of her sister-in-law, Bomhall.

Now herself and Bomhall, they have not parted on good terms

and Bomhall has a knowing.

Bomhall can see the lifelight in people, and she happens to be standing on the wall

and she sees the lifelight of her sister coming and it waves like a candle, but

at the base of the candle there is this yellow searing light: the light of her

nephew who has lost his father, cruel.

And she runs out and Muirne, now she falls into her arms and she

drags her backwards towards the lis.

And just as they get into the door, all you can hear is,

Ahr-whooooooooooooooo!

But she's safe in the arms of her kin.

Sin é mo scéal - that is my story.

The first ever telling - to you,

Jim!

Oh, what a compelling, compelling story.

And, and of course the images are, are right there.

So beautiful to think of the strength she had to summon

Yeah.

Uh, in order to do that.

Yeah.

And to step outside her role, which is like your story, you know, this,

this man who would be so gentle and would be so looking at the texts and

bringing, you know, kind of the, the, the beauty of the faith in, you know.

And then having to step outside of that with a piece of paper.

Yeah.

And all his faith, you know?

Yeah.

That's what brought it up to, to me, because she had to step outside

her role, you know, and with all her faith, and she was the last one,

and this seed was going to be the seed of the, of the Finn, you know?

Mm-hmm.

She just marched on.

Yeah.

And I love the sister, the aunts, being able to see

the, the spirit there and

yeah,

it was wonderful.

Wonderful.

That was her gift to be able to see the lifelight and the color

of the light, you know, the color of the souls, yeah, that she was seeing.

Yeah.

Well that reminds me of the story.

Yay.

I love the red thread of story!

My teacher, Yitzhak Buxaum, also of blessed memory.

Mm-hmm.

This was, I, I don't think I've told this story in a very long time.

This was one of his signature stories and he had absolutely fallen in love with it.

It's a story about the Baal Shem Tov and how, you know, what he would often do is

take these midnight rides in his carriage with some disciples in the carriage.

And they would go wherever.

And there were lots of magical journeys.

But on this occasion, it was the middle of winter, you know, in the

cold of the Ukraine, which is where he lived, and they were riding along

this road that was completely desolate.

They entered into a clearing, and the horses started to get nervous.

And they went a little further into the center of the clearing, and the

horses stopped dead: they wouldn't move.

Everybody looked outside of the carriage and they saw that they were

surrounded by pairs of eyes all around.

Wolves.

Wolves.

Too many wolves to even think of what they could do.

And one pair of eyes that was higher than the rest started to

approach slowly, and they realized this was the Rebbe of the Wolves.

And so the disciples are, oh, what are we gonna do?

What, how do we, how do, and the Baal Shem Tov simply stepped out of the carriage

and started walking towards the wolf.

And they were terrified.

He didn't, he didn't have a knife.

He didn't have any weapon.

And what did he do?

He slowly opened up his outer jacket,

and then he opened up the jacket beneath that,

and then he opened up the shirt that was beneath that, and then he pulled up his

last shirt, until his chest was bare.

The Rebbe of the Wolves came and put his paws on his shoulders

and touched his cool nose to the Baal Shem Tov's heart,

and waited.

And after a while, he let go of the Baal Shem Tov, he touched his head to the

ground, and he turned around, and he left.

And the wolves left with him.

The Baal Shem Tov starts walking back to his carriage, buttoning up against

the cold, and the disciples were, What?

What just happened?

For someone who has no hate or fear or anger in their heart, animals

will see that and respect that.

And so I showed him who I was.

Now when Yitzhak told this story,

he followed it up.

He had gone, and I cannot imagine this.

I mean, I can, but it's just so bizarre.

Here's this little guy from Brooklyn who somehow made his way to a rodeo.

I, I, I, I just, I can't imagine how that happened, but here

he was, he was at a rodeo.

Why he would go, makes no sense to me.

But as part of the, the show, there was a fellow who came and

sat in the center of the arena.

And he did just that.

He opened his shirt and a wolf would come and sniff his shirt

and his heart and go away.

Yeah.

And he had to then talk to this man and he told him this was not a trained wolf,

you know, this was just a regular wolf.

They exchanged their stories about how wolves and humans interact.

Yeah.

And, and this was again, one of those stories that people say, is it true?

You know?

Yeah.

And,

and

I believe that one is totally true.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I've heard many stories like that here in Ireland as well.

You know, and there's a story they, they call people of the knowing and often

it's the, the traveling people, you know?

Oh sure.

So they'd say, you know, kind of Máire of the knowing Mary of

the knowing, you know, Sean of the knowing, John of the knowing, you know?

Right.

And, um, there's a beautiful, beautiful true life story.

I, I was discussing this with Vincent, who's a storyteller from Tipperary,

and he told me that as a young, young child, he watched, um, a beautiful docile

horse that they all had a stake in.

So the neighbors had all bought a bit of him.

Mm-hmm.

And they used to be joking about, oh, I own his left cheek, or I, I own

his right knee, or, you know, right.

If you're joking like that.

And the horse was beginning to win at the point to points.

They came out one day and he was throwing himself around the field and Vince said

the nearest thing he ever saw to it was, um, you know, kind of mad cow disease.

Mm-hmm.

And they called the vet. The vet stood inside the gate and he was like, oh,

there's something after getting into his brain, and I'd have to put the horse down.

And this would've been a, a good many years ago, 1920s, thirties, that way.

Mm-hmm.

You know, and the father said, Fine, but he said, We all own a bit of him,

so you'll have to wait for 24 hours.

And he said, that's cruel to that animal, the, the vet, you know.

And he said, well, he said.

You'll just have to come back tomorrow.

And when he was gone, he said, Go down and get the the traveling man.

Go down and get the traveling man.

And he came up and he walked into the field and he just put his

hands very slowly, wider and wider.

And he walked in slow motion towards this crazed horse.

And as walked, the horse became calmer, you know, until

eventually the horse became still.

The man was still, and he was walking up towards him with his arms out.

And when he got there, he put his face to the face of the horse, his cheek to

the apple of the cheek of the horse.

And it looked as if they were slow dancing.

Mm-hmm.

And then he waited for a minute, and very slowly he took his head away and he moved

it to the other cheek and he put the apple of his cheek to the cheek of the horse.

When he was finished doing that, he asked for pliers and some

brand mash, and some whiskey.

And what he had found from the heat of the cheek of the horse

was that the horse had an abscess.

Mm. When he lanced the abcess, the horse was as docile as ever it was.

And they gave that young vet some chip, you know.

So like there is, there is something about trust.

And there is something about belief, you know, when it comes to animals.

And I've seen it with my own eyes, you know, kind of, I've seen, you know, kind

of how animals can connect and step out of their role as well because we, but

they have the role of like, you know, come for me and I'll get you first.

There is a bit of that in big animals, but if you can, if you can say, but

I'm not afraid and I want to connect, you know, and my own brother, who I'm

here with now, because he's uh, 60, he's always had a way with animals.

He came in one day and he was like shaking.

And my mother said, What's going on with you?

And he opened his duffle coat and inside there was a baldy crow.

The crow was pink.

There wasn't a feather left on it.

And we called that crow Dawsy.

And he learned how to force feed, you know, like, you know, the way you

have to feed, um, uh, a baby bird.

Yeah.

You know, it, it, to us it looks cruel.

So he put something on the end of a stick and he'd, you know, yeah.

put it down his throat and he blossomed, like, you know, and his feathers came

back and, you know, so like, even as a very young child, I could see

if you could put your fear aside you could really connect with animals.

And I saw that through the brother that I'm here with at the moment.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, one of the things that I do is I'm a end of life doula, a death doula.

Yeah.

And so I had this one opportunity.

I was visiting a, a woman who was at the end of her life

and in a fair amount of pain.

Mm. And she was living with her daughter in a very tiny apartment.

It was a really tiny place.

Yeah.

And the woman was in the, their tiny living room, sitting in a chair.

She wouldn't take the hospital bed, she didn't want that.

She had this recliner she was in, and so there was a single couch.

The daughter was sitting there and they said, Would you please, uh,

give my mother some Reiki, you know, some energy healing for the pain?

I said, sure.

That's part of what I do.

And I said to them, Do you know what Reiki is?

They didn't know anything about it.

And so, as I normally would do, I started to explain what it is and how it works,

and, and that's part of the beginning, is you start to speak slowly and you

know, you get them in the receptive mode.

Hmm.

And, as we're just about ready to start, there's a knock on the front door.

Well, the front door opens into this room.

I mean, it's a tiny, tiny little place.

Yeah.

And so the daughter goes up to get the door, and it's the neighbor.

And the neighbor said, I, you know, I, I wanted to come and visit, and I just

had a feeling that now is a good time.

I should come and visit.

And I, I said, well, we're about to do some Reiki.

Would you like to join us?

Because there's, it doesn't have to go to one person.

It can go to the whole group.

And she said, Oh, yeah.

So I, I start explaining it again and we're just ready to begin.

And there's another knock on the door, and it's her nephew from two

hours away who was just compelled to come and visit at that moment.

So once again, now we've got four people in this little room.

The two of them are on the couch, one's on the recliner, the nephew is on the

hospital bed, and the room is full.

And then there's me.

And I said, okay, here's what it is.

Let's, let's get ready to start.

All of a sudden I hear the pitter patter of little feet.

In walks a dog from the other room, rolls over on its back, throws its legs

open, and is clearly ready to receive.

And it was just the most amazing moment, uh, of that sort that I've ever had.

But yeah, this dog just knew.

Yes.

Yeah, absolutely.

And as we say here.

No accidents.

And I know you say that in your faith as well.

Yeah.

You know, so yeah.

That was a meant to be moment, you know?

So, um, I, we were talking about, um, I, I do this threading and weaving

workshop, you know, and, um, I say sometimes things open between you and you

start having the same threads, you know?

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

The most amazing version of that that ever happened was when I was running

a workshop for the CVN, the Creative Voice Network in UCC, which, um, primarily

started for people who are hearing voices.

Yeah.

So when you're running the workshop, you don't know if you have

psychiatrists, doctors, family members, or somebody who's hearing voices.

Right?

Right.

So we're, we're sitting and I'm giving the instruction.

And I'm saying, clear your mind now and think of a character.

And everybody thought of the same character.

And the character was Father Time.

And he had a long white beard, and he was wearing a long white shirt, you know,

and everybody had the same description and the same character in their head.

And, uh, then we went on , I collected all the threads first.

Yes.

And so the next thread was, well, what environment are they in?

And they said, Well, he's out in the desert and he's at the edge of a cliff.

And as he looks over the edge of the cliff, he sees this very strong

branch and it's holding up a nest.

And in the nest there's two eggs and there's an eagle flying in.

And the eagle is obviously, you know, responsible for

this nest, and for these eggs.

Then Father Time has a terrible accident and he falls off the

cliff and he falls into the nest.

So I'm collecting the threads and I'm asking people, right?

And the first person said, oh, well, my character is Father Time.

And everybody in the room goes, Oh.

Because it was their character as well!

Right!

So I said, isn't that amazing?

That's never happened to this extent before.

Yeah.

But it often happens because our threads become familiar and it's beyond language.

And look at that, isn't that amazing?

And then we went onto the next bit and I said, what's the environment?

And the next person that I asked said, Well, they're out in the

desert and it's on a cliff edge.

And over the cliff there is this branch, and in the branch there is a nest.

And the room went, Oooh!

And I went, Oh my God.

You know, and everybody had had the same thing.

And it was, we went to lunch and nobody spoke like, I mean, it was,

it was the same story from everybody.

It's never happened before or never happened since, to

me to that magical extent.

But it does happen.

Mm.

It, it talks to the way we can communicate without our words.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

If we're open enough.

Mm-hmm.

You know, and people have been working on body work and breath

work and openness for the whole weekend, and then that happens.

So it's very similar to Yes,

yes.

You know, kind of the, the beautiful this moment meets these people.

Yes.

And this is right now, you know?

Yeah, yeah.

I'm also very much interested in neuroscience.

When I look at these things, I look at them and say, These are

real things that are happening.

Yeah.

And that means they must be in some way reflected in our bodies

as well, not just our spirits.

There's this wonderful thing that happens when two people

are together and communicating.

It's called neural coupling.

Yeah.

And it means that your brain starts to vibrate at the same pattern as I do.

One of the things they've learned about that is that if you were a tailor

and we were speaking with each other and I was not, I would be picking

up in ways that neither of us were aware of, your skills as a tailor.

Yeah.

And so when it was time for me to learn that, I wouldn't learn it in that

moment, but when I was ready to learn to be a tailor, I would have access to.

Like a little imprint.

Yeah.

Like little imprints of, oh, I, I know what to do next, even though we had never

spoken about it, and that these skills and this knowledge passes between us.

Yeah.

Just by the fact of us being in, interacting with each other, even

it's never spoken.

I, I firmly believe we kind of train ourselves out of that.

Yeah.

Because when, when a baby is born, a baby doesn't know it's

separate for at least six weeks.

Right.

Right.

So when the parent is gone, it's like my world is coming to an

end because they, they don't know that the parent will come back.

In that like, you know, you're kind of going, oh, that's a vulnerable time

for the baby then, and can you wait for that to be over so the baby, you know?

But actually, it's also a very special time because it's the,

it is the time of imprinting.

One of my very fond memories is my grand niece, my mother's great-granddaughter.

And she's sitting on my mother's knee, and my mother is singing and talking.

Not that I can hear, but I can hear that there's something passing

into the back of the child's head.

Mm-hmm.

And I said, what are you doing?

And she says, I'm putting the stories into the child.

And I'm like, oh my God.

Look at the intelligence of that.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

You know?

And how much of those kind of intelligences have we forgotten?

You talked about Reiki earlier and I remember when I was training to be

a biodynamic therapist and we were looking at the, you know, the heat

that you could move over your skin.

Yes.

And that if you took your hand up higher, you could feel it, but more faintly now.

And if you practiced it, the separation from your skin to your hand could become

longer and you could still feel the heat moving along and the receiving skin, you

know, and how we played with one another.

One of the great experiments was everybody was blindfolded, and we had to feel one

another's heat from a distance, so you couldn't put hands on the person, but you

could feel their heat from a distance.

And then still blindfolded, you had to find, you had to put people back

in the order of which you, you know, kind of felt the heat of the person.

And without fail, we were all able to do it.

Yes,

it was amazing, you know, but we forget things like that.

We forget things.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm.

Yeah.

Will we say goodbye from Cork?

And goodbye from New York, but only for a while because we'll be

back again with another episode.

Absolutely.

We can't wait to see you on the Story Road one more time, and from this

time till that, be safe on the Story Road.