“Beannacht / Blessing” by 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 in to 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.

Another of love’s remarkable qualities is that of blessing. Love conveyed by whatever means always brings blessing. It blesses if it points out that which is inconsistent with its spirit and much be changed or relinquished. It blesses if it encourages you to overcome that which has previously held you back. It blesses if it strengthens your faith in yourself and if it reminds you that you do indeed have a place in the world, a purpose, a reason for being.

You do no need to find love; you need to be still long enough for love to find you. Love courses through the body of nature, it pulses into the earth with every heartbeat, it whispers through the air with every breath of every living creature. Love flows through the marvelous design of nature’s inanimate elements.

Love is everywhere.

*currach – noun (esp. in Wales and Ireland) a small, round boat made of wickerwork covered with a watertight material, propelled with a paddle.