Kamila Grabska was involved in a car accident on her way to work in the Irish town of Ennis.

The car she was a passenger in was rear-ended, which allegedly left her with debilitating physical trauma.

She told a High Court in Limerick that her pain kept her in bed on bad days and prevented her from carrying relatively light loads, like bags of groceries.

However, they didn't stop her from participating in and actually winning Christmas tree-throwing contests. 

Asked by the lawyers if she felt any pain while participating in the tree-throwing contest, the 36-year-old said that she was indeed in pain, but she was "trying to live a normal life". Read more

I had three sets of rosary beads at home, but they are made of plastic. These are different, made of wood, warm to the touch.

Instantly, they connected with my hand in a new way and spoke of two lives.

The first life belonged to a Scottish carpenter who struggled with ill health. However, he had a daughter who was strong and adept with a hammer and saw. She likes making things.

There were lopsided doll's houses with furniture, for my sisters, a wooden train for my brother. (The wheels were bottle tops but he didn't' mind.)

I advanced to wooden stools, bookcases, window frames, a dog kennel.

Finally, it was a lathe and eight years of woodturning.

Always there was gratitude close to love, for the material I worked with.

Trees did not cease when they died. They lived on to serve us.

These wooden rosary beads speak in a personal way to an old woodworker.

They also speak of the great life that encloses us all.

Jesus knew wood.

His first bed was a manger, a wooden trough for animal food.

He died on wood.

All the years in between, he used wood.

We can imagine the trees that served his life. Olive, Cyprus, Fir and Oak.

As an infant, he would play with shavings in Joseph's workplace.

His parent's home would have wooden beams, wooden furniture.

He sat at wooden tables, ate from wooden bowls and sailed in wooden boats.

In our reverence, we create stories of the "Holy Grail", the chalice of the Last Supper made in gold and embellished with precious stones; it was probably made of wood.

When Jesus went to Golgotha, he would know that a tree had been killed before him, to make the cross. It seems right that they should be together this way.

So I sit here at my desk with these wooden rosary beads and come to a new awareness of Jesus, us, and our connection with trees.

Some of these thoughts are too deep for words.

I see a tree as a symbol of birth, growth, death and resurrection.

It seems appropriate that the birth of Jesus is celebrated with a decorated tree that the tree is lit in some way and that it welcomes us with gifts.

I don't know what kind of wood is in my new rosary beads. Whatever, they were once part of a tree.

This may sound off-beat, but I think I will call these beads, my "Christmas Tree."

• Joy Cowley is a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and retreat facilitator.

The 32-metre spruce tree from Bavaria was erected on November 18 in St Peter's Square.

It will be unveiled on December 8, a date when world attention will be on Rome at the start of the jubilee.

The tree's lights will be illuminated on December 18.

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Following the warming of ties, South Korea halted its tradition of lighting up Christmas trees in 2003, but the South lit a tower last year as relations deteriorated between the neighbours.

The trees will stay lit for 15 days starting 23 December and the South will bolster security near the trees

The trees will be able to be seen from Kaesong, a major North Korean city and for the South are a symbol the freedom of expression and religion.

The North's state-run Uriminjokkiri website responded saying the North will retaliate using a form of "psychological warfare".

Animosity between the two Koreas still lingers in the aftermath of the North's alleged torpedoing of a South Korean warship and its artillery bombardment of a South Korean island that killed a total of 50 South Koreans last year.

North Korea has denied responsibility in the warship sinking.

The Associated Press quotes a defence ministry official as saying the South has agreed to allow Christian groups to light a further two towers this year.

The official says the towers will be located in the western, central and eastern parts of the border and security will be tight during the 15 days they are lit, beginning on 23 December.

Sources

• BBC
• The Telegraph