What the Meithal course really means to you

 

The speeches, the comments and all of the

emotions

Where do we go from here?

NICOLA TOOMEY

“Act justly, love tenderly, walk humbly with your God” was written by Micah and is the spiritual vision of Meitheal. By learning about this vision in our training, we were able to realise how we could live by this motto and bring it into our future lives.

Act justly means to treat everyone fairly and equally no matter what the situation. During the year, we certainly had to put this into practice with personalities and ideas clashing. Bringing this knowledge with us can help us in our future careers and in our daily adult lives. We can deal with confrontation much better than before and can take on many different positions in a team situation such as the leader, the listener or the problem-solver.

Love tenderly is to deal with everyone compassionately and with empathy. Meitheal teams have definitely had to do this; dealing with sensitive issues such as bullying. This quality can aid us in our future relationships. We can recognise when a loved-one is down or out-of-sorts, we can appreciate good relationships and try to mend bad ones and we can accept everyone, flaws and all, and find their good qualities and talents.

Walk humbly is to be modest and realise there is a higher power. We lived by this from the very first day by volunteering ourselves to help others. By working as part of a team, we all realised that we can’t do everything ourselves as other people have qualities that we wouldn’t posses to such a degree. In our future lives, we will be more willing to get involved on a voluntary basis as we have experienced the benefits of volunteering for Meitheal. If any of us decide to travel, now we might spare a thought for the more underdeveloped countries and volunteer to help out instead of sunbathing on a beach somewhere.

Looking back on the experience we had, we’ve come away with a lot; great friendships, new skills and an insight into ourselves. But looking forward Meitheal has provided us with invaluable preparation for life ahead, by learning one simple line. We are able to perform under pressure, work well in different situations in the workplace and can recognise when someone is down, being bullied or if there is risk of confrontation. We can now volunteer instead of waiting to be asked or being bribed into doing something. To be honest, I think we would have much more happier workplaces and relationships if more people took part in Meitheal. We can easily put Meitheal on our C.V.’s and we can listen to people a lot better, but when it comes down to it, these life skills are priceless.

So remember:

“Act justly, love tenderly, walk humbly with your God.”

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