Last week, my wondrous friend Lori (donnanddiablo.com) sent me one of John O’Donahue‘s exquisite blessings. I used to consider myself well-read – until I met Lori; moderately well-rounded – until I started following David Kanigan (davidkanigan.com), a tad lyrical – until I found Bill (drbillwooten.com). I also considered myself to have a modicum of some other qualities that have been brought into some question now that I am an avid fan of many of your blogs (and I could go on, but you know from my comments how highly I think of you very, very talented people who enrich my life so often). Creative, courageous, innovative, funny, unbridled – some of the adjectives that come to mind..
Anyhow, Lori and I are connected in ways too cosmic for me to fully understand. Our emails cross each other in the cyberspace almost daily, each of us thinking of the other simultaneously. She can intuit when something’s wrong, and I will feel a shadow across the sun if Lori is troubled. That I can sense something is ‘off’ with Jo for example, seems to come with breathing – we’ve known each other longer than we have known ourselves. But Lori and I began in tune without ever having met. I find it incredible and awesome. I feel this way about all those I love – each is a blessing. Corny? Mea culpa. Is there a way to say this without sounding corny? Probably, but this is a reflection of my limitation with the language nothing more.
I hadn’t heard of John O’Donahue. How I could have missed such beauty? So I share this with you – though it is Lori who should be thanked for this introduction. After emailing with a friend of mine earlier this morning, thinking about how we test ourselves and occasionally torture our thoughts and hearts, it seemed only right that I pass this along to you. I hope you receive it in the spirit with which it is given – with hope in the sunlight.
A Blessing For The New Year
On a 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 gray window
And the ghost of loss
Gets into you,
May a flock of colors
Indigo, red, green
And azure blue,
Come to awaken in you
A meadow of delight.
When the canvas frays
In the curragh 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.
Waiting for the Karma Truck 