Blessings
Reality is relentless.
It has its way with us.
Period.
Conversation over.
But is the conversation really over?
Maybe not.
Decades ago, in my oh, so foggy early sobriety, I heard a woman at a meeting suggest that one might, upon awakening, thank the universe for the day ahead.
I was appalled!
What if the day sucks?
What if something “bad” happens?
What if?
How can we be grateful for the blessings that don’t seem like blessings?
Shouldn’t we wait and see, and then decide if we might deem them blessings?
There are moments, experiences that just flush our hearts open with gratitude and joy.
These are the obvious blessings.
What are they, in your world?
In my world, they are pink winter sunsets flying on, softening the snow, the undisputable smile on a dog walking down the block, who’s is obviously rocking on in life’s most fantastic moment—these burst my heart open.
Then there are the others—the losses, the changes, the beds cold and alone and emptied, the stealing, the shape-shifting of reality as we know it.
Are these blessings?
How might heartbreak or loss ever deserve our blessing?
Practice helps.
Practice helps.
Practice helps!!
It doesn’t change reality—oh, if it did.
It does soften our grip, it loosens our breath, it helps the moment come and go.
I do not say any of this to offer us a doorway out of the human dilemma, out of the feelings.
I say these words, week after week, day after moment after breath, to give us the courage to keep going.
The way out of the moment?
It’s through the moment.
The way out of the feelings?
It’s through the feelings.
Gratitude is a practice that literally changes the chemistry of the brain.
The work of Br. David Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine Catholic monk, author, teacher extraordinaire has made its way toward my heart. Brother David serves a worldwide Network for Grateful Living, through Gratefulness.org, an interactive website with several thousand participants daily from more than 240 countries and territories.
Give yourself the gift of this short video, his offering of six blessings for everyday life. I am providing the transcript for the video below the video.
Bless what there is, for being. Whatever it be, bless it because it exists; you need no other reason.
Source of All Blessings,
You bless us with breath —
In and out, in and out, ever-renewing us, ever anew, making us one with all who breathe the same air.
May this blessing overflow into a shared gratefulness, so that with one breath I may praise and celebrate life.
~~~
Source of All Blessings,
You bless us with humility —
That down-to-earth quality that has nothing in common with
humiliation but makes us stand tall and acknowledge both the hands that feed us and the stars to which we aspire.
May I learn to practice, and to honor in others, this sparkling humility which is the dignity that we, as human beings cannot afford to lose.
~~~
Source of All Blessings,
You bless us with imprecision —
With all that is vague, close but not quite; all that leaves room for the more specific, the more precise, and room for the imagination.
May I know when to be exact and when to move freely and blessed in the space so generously provided by all that is not perfectly defined, giving full scope to my dreams and creativity.
~~~
Source of All Blessings,
You bless us with memory —
That sacred ingathering of the past that allows us to recognize faces, learn poems by heart, find our way back when we are lost, and bring forth old and new from its nearly inexhaustible store.
May I know what to forgive and what to retain and treasure, keeping in mind the smallest kindness shown to me and spreading its ripples for a long time.
~~~
Source of All Blessings,
You bless us with change —
In the seasons of the year, from snow to greening, flowering, fruiting and harvest, in the seasons of life, from childhood to youth, full ripeness, and saging. All living things keep changing.
May I welcome change as a sacred opportunity to grow and savor in each unrepeatable moment’s fleetingness what IS beyond change.
~~~
Source of All Blessings,
You bless us with departures —
For they are a necessary part of our journey, necessary for the arriving.
May I always be ready to take leave, always aware that every arrival is a prelude to departure, every birth a step toward dying, and may I thus taste the blessing of being fully present where I am.
May blessings help to sharpen your taste for the gift of life in its innumerable facets. May you grow ever more blessed, ever more able to bless.
~~~
Breath.
Humility.
Imprecision.
Memory.
Change.
Departures.
Bless
What there is,
For being.
Whatever it be,
Bless it
Because it exists;
You need
No
Other
Reason.
Dear Friends, go gently and safely through this cold winter week.
May we all be wrapped in blessings.
May those on our planet most at risk, most alone, most afraid, may they find their way safely home, inside home and outside home.
May we all find our way home.
All blessings,
Aruni