Blessing - John O'Donohue

On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.

And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets into you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green 
and azure blue,
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,

may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

John O'Donohue

written for his Mother
Original title "Beannacht - A New Year Blessing

~

One of the profound things that O'Donohue's
work suggests is that blessing doesn't erase difficulty,
but rather reaches deeper.  In his essay he argues:

"It [blessing] is not the invention of what is not there,
nor the glazed-eye belief that the innocent energy of goodwill
can alter what is destructive...   Blessing.....issues from the
confident depth of the hidden Self...  When you bless someone,
you literally call the force of their infinite Self into action."

Giving blessings relies on a double capacity.  Its task is to
simultaneously look outward and honor the reality of what is
happening, while looking inward to name the inner experience
and resources within, to make visible the invisible world...

...blessing is gratitude made manifest...

From an Essay by Brittany Deininger MA in theology
and Culture Alumni

~

Photo - Mystic Meandering