As stillness in stone to silence is wed, May solitude foster your truth in word.
As a river flows in ideal sequence, May your soul reveal where time is presence.
As the moon absolves the dark of distance, May your style of thought bridge the indifference.
As the breath of light awakens color, May the dawn anoint your eyes with wonder.
Do you ever encounter moments in your life when you just don't have words to express what you feel — and then you come upon a song or a poem or some other work of art that simply does the talking for you?
Earlier this year, my friend, Randy, gave me a book that, in so many ways, has spoken the words I couldn't find for myself. "To Bless the Space Between Us" is a book of blessings that draws from the Celtic spiritual traditions of compiling insights and blessings for milestones and transitions.
John O'Donohue's book of blessings covers a range of experiences from embracing the morning to living in the uncertainty of a season to the birth or death of a person to the praise of beauty. It's both sacred and poetic. It's both universal and specific. When James and I were packing for our month-long trip to Africa in March, it was the one non-Kindle book I wanted to bring with me. It continues to stay near me. Sometimes, we just need words of blessing by our side.
So, for today, here are some words to speak to your heart.
For Freedom by John O'Donohue
As a bird soars high In the free holding of the wind, Clear of the certainty of ground, Opening the imagination of wings Into the grace of emptiness To fulfill new voyagings, May your life awaken To the call of its freedom.
As the ocean absolves itself Of the expectation of land, Approaching only In the form of waves That fill and pleat and fall With such gradual elegance As to make of the limit A sonorous threshold Whose music echoes back among The give and strain of memory, Thus may your heart know the patience That can draw infinity from limitation.
As the embrace of the earth Welcomes all we call death, Taking deep into itself The right solitude of a seed, Allowing it time To shed the grip of former form And give way to a deeper generosity That will one day send it forth, A tree into springtime, May all that holds you Fall from its hungry ledge Into the fecund surge of your heart.
from: "To Bless the Space Between Us" by John O'Donohue. Pub in 2008 by Doubleday.
p.s. Here's another one of my favorites from Martha Postlethwaite.
"As hard as I have tried to remember the exact moment when I fell in love with God, I cannot do it. My earliest memories are bathed in a kind of golden light that seemed to embrace me as surely as my mother's arms. The divine presence was strongest outdoors, and most palpable when I was alone."
Barbara Brown Taylor, Leaving Church
"I believe I will never quite know. Though I play at the edges of knowing, truly I know our part is not knowing,
but looking, and touching, and loving, which is the way I walked on, softly, through the pale-pink morning light."
Mary Oliver, excerpt from Bone
“There is ecstasy in paying attention...Anyone who wants to can be surprised by the beauty or pain of the natural world, of the human mind and heart, and can try to capture just that - the details, the nuance, what is. If you start to look around, you will start to see.” - Anne Lamott
