I stand, stone still, at the edge of disheartenment.I have nothing but this certainty:nothing changes, nothing lasts.I feel hollow. God, this world you made is full.Warm earth pushing up new seedlings,unfathomable oceans teeming with mystery,and the miracle that our clay bodiesbear even the possibility of creating new life. We are all swimming in wonderso, God, […]
Blessings
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A blessing for when your family disappoints you
God, I am angry and hurt and so incredibly sad.The very people who were supposed to love me and know me besthave let me down.I don’t know if I’ll be able to let this goor find a way forward.I am losing my sense of home. And the reality of it all fills me with a […]
A Blessing for an Unfinishable Day
God, it seems that stopping is impossible. Dishes need to be washed.Kids need to be fed.Aging parents need to be cared for.Deadlines need to be met.Medicines need to be administered.Diapers always need to be changed.(They multiply if I sleep, after all.) Can you ease the burden of perfection? Free me from this fantasyof the better […]
A blessing for around the table
God, awaken us to the everyday miracle of a simple meal.Whether it is take-out that took a phone call,a recipe that took an entire afternoon,or the cereal-for-dinner again feeling this meal creates,bless it all. So blessed are we, sharing a meal today.May we recognize God’s goodnessin the thoughtful preparation,in the delivering,in the eating together,savoring something […]
A Blessing for Care-Givers and Care-Receivers
Sometimes bodies or minds come undoneand you are carried by a caregiver (often literally).Whether you wanted this or not,you have been given the great gift of a Witness Bearer(or Med Tracker or Insurance Battler or More-Ice-Chips-Please Fetcher). But other times,you haven’t found a partner.Or you never married. Or they left.Or your person died.Or you feel […]
A Blessing For When Things Don’t Make Any Sense
God, I’m fumbling around for answers, reasons, meaning. I can’t find any purpose in this pain.Why me?Why them?Why now? I don’t know when this is going to get better. Or if I will ever feel relief. Blessed are we who need to be remindedthat there are some things we can fix…and some things we can’t. Blessed are […]
A Blessing When You Have to Learn to Say “No”
Bless you, you big hearted one.You who always show up or stay late or offer to bring dessert.You who are the first to volunteer or drop off dinner or help them move.(Really… when do we age out of helping people move? Asking for a friend.) You offer a gift of love that doesn’t keep scoreand […]
A Blessing When You Want to Belong
Blessed are you playing the stories of who you are through your mind like a filmstrip.Where you got your laugh or love of music or those terrible navigation skills.You who can pinpoint yourself on a family tree.You who know exactly WHOSE you are. And blessed are you when you don’t belong.When you can’t explain exactly […]
A blessing for when love makes us afraid
Blessed are you,Looking at the miracle—the surprise before your eyes:That kid you prayed so hard for.The relationship you hoped would come.The feeling of family you get when you’re all together. This chest-expanding, heart-bursting, time-please-slow-down kind of love. The kind of love that you would really prefer to roll in bubble wrap.To protect them just a […]
A blessing when you need a little motivation to change
I am rummaging through this dayin search of evidencethat tomorrow could be different. As many times as I wake updetermined to bend the futurewith each effort and expectation,my conviction evaporates by the day’s end. Lord, we are given so few chancesto direct the course of our lives.So with what little is in my control,could you […]
A blessing for when things don’t add up
Blessed are you who say:This did not add up. I had hoped these choices I made, the life I tried so hard to pick,would add up to somethingMeaningful. But now I’m left without many choices at all. Left wondering… did I pick right? Did I waste my days? What should I have done differently? This limited life is what […]
A blessing for when faith breaks your heart
Blessed are you standing among the ruins of a faith that once felt so sturdy,now turned to dust under your feet. The certainty you once had, gone. The community you loved, dissipated.The hope you held dear, hard to find. Instead, what’s taken up residence is the very stuff that seems counter to what you imagined:Disappointment. Doubt. Disillusionment. Despair. In […]
A blessing for when you’re different now
Blessed are you, dear one, when the world around you has changed. Everything is different now,your body, your age, your relationships, your job, your faith. The things that once brought you joy.The way you existed in the world.The people you love and trust and rely on. Things have changed and it would be silly to […]
A blessing for when you wake up tired (again, today)
God, it’s morning and I’m already tired. This is the kind of tiredness that muffles promise in a day,cluttering it with the messes of the pastand the unfilled hopes of the future. Blessed are we who say,God, I know that there is goodness and love and beauty somewhere.It calls, but from beyond my reach. God, […]
A blessing for everyday empathy (because, hey, SENSITIVITY ISN’T A BAD THING)
Blessed are you, the sensitive one, attuned to the feelings of others.You couldn’t turn it off if you tried. Blessed are you with the emotional bandwidth to hear hard things,without fixing or minimizing or deflecting,You know the gift of presence. Blessed are you who chooses to show up without judgmentwith little gifts or small acts […]
A Blessing for When the Road is Long
God, I could not have imaginedthat this road could beso long, so hard, so daunting. Here I am, worn out—body and soul. Blessed are we, the wearywho must set aside what we are carrying,and begin to feel only the weight of our own being.It is enough for now. Let our shoulders sink from around our […]
A Blessing For the Start of a New School Year
The year is tilting toward the start of school again, but truth be told, we’re not ready. We’re still hanging on to summer, to the promise it held for long-awaited connections and celebrations, for refreshment for our bodies and souls in water and sky and color and sunlight, and all those little moments given to […]
A blessing for when it’s not fair
The last time anyone let me say it– tears in my eyes, straight from the heart –I was a child. Didn’t anyone tell you?Life isn’t fair. So I swallow it up. But God, without hearing you say it –“My love, this isn’t fair” –I am heartsick. I ate this sadness and it became embarrassment;I ate […]
A blessing for if you happen to be having an ordinary day
Lord, here I am. How strange it is, that some days feel like hurricanesand others like glassy seasand others like nothing much at all. Today is a cosmic shrug. My day planner says,rather conveniently,that I will not need you,cry for you, reach for you. Ordinarily, I might not think of you at all. Except, if […]
A blessing for learning to Delight again
(maybe today could be more than bearable. It could be beautiful.) Blessed are you, the pragmatic,You who have run the math and know what adds up—and what doesn’t.You who have set it all down.You who don’t hope or dream or plan anymore,…because what’s the point? Your world has shrunk.Pain or grief or fear has sucked […]
A blessing for being someone’s person (here or gone, we love you)
Blessed are the noticers. The ones who see the story in its fullness. Blessed are the attend-ers. The witness-bearers. The story-holders. The ones who tiptoe to the edge right alongside us, knowing that the very act will break their heart in pieces too. Blessed are those who are amazed by a life lived in its […]
A blessing for when you might not be kind today
God, I can’t tell which person I will be today: kind and loving, turn-the-other-cheek and I’ll-be-right-here, soft but strong. I will keep no record of wrongs. I might be someone else entirely: brittle and judgmental, I’m-taking-my-share and you-deal-with-it-alone, hard but weak. I will keep every record, dammit. I am an accountant in this world that does […]
A Blessing for the Courage to Try
Blessed are you, faced with the impossible. You who do not take your eyes away from what threatens to swallow you whole. You who stare down reality, though your heart quickens. You for whom action comes swiftly, as you chart the next step or bulldoze a new path yourself. You know how to turn hope […]
a blessing for telling the truth (No matter how bitter or sweet)
Blessed are you, resisting the urge to reframe. You who are sick and tired of silver linings. Blessed are you, speaking honestly about what is right in front of you: This is hard. Things might not get better. This really has gone horribly. There may not be a different way. You who risk honesty, especially when the world around us […]
a blessing for the kind of love that costs something
Love can break your heart. (I think it’s probably in the fine print.) Blessed are you, whose ability to love crosses differences and divides that would keep others apart. Whose love advocates for weakness and fragility. Soft heartedness and “Are you okay?” You who know that this kind of life-expanding love will cost you something, maybe […]
A blessing for when we lose ourselves in other people’s problems
God, I am a shapeshifter.Hidden in plain sight.A great disappearing act. Every now and again,when I am spinning in a tornadoof other people’s needs and wants,I worry that if I stepped out of itto stand dumbfounded for a moment,my body would cast no shadow. God, I vanish.The unnecessary pain and necessary needsof others feels durable. […]
A Blessing for When Today Already Feels Like Too Much
I was hoping to be the kind of person by nowwho doesn’t tumble, headlong, into the dayfalling, falling, fallingfrom the high boardwithout nearly enough water below. God, I swear I didn’t plan it like this.But here I am, hoping for another miracle. Lord, bless these dumb plansthat will short circuit my thinkingand make me fragile, […]
A Blessing for When You’re Running on Fumes
Sometimes I am paperthinning at every touch. Responsibilities and duties and errandsare wearing me down.There is not enough time or energyor finances or imagination. I hardly recognize myself. I can’t keep going, but I can’t rest.God, can You help me slow down? I just need a little shelter and a long breath. Give me space […]
A Blessing for Collective Grief (when thoughts and prayers are not enough)
This world. Impossible. Unthinkable. We are brought to our knees. God, today, there is no true north.And when I last checked, the sun did not rise at all. Today, the innocent still suffer,teachers still risk their lives,families still grieve. A world has ended without any reasonable fanfare. And we are sold the fantasy that nothing can be done. Help us to know […]
A Blessing For If You Are In Pain
Blessed are you on this pain-filled day.When getting out of bed deserves an award.When you can’t remember what it feels likenot to be so aware of your own body.When you arrange your weeks around limitations or side effects. Or when you stop telling the truth altogether about how badly it hurts,how scared you are of […]
A Blessing for an Ordinary Day (because something terrible is not happening for once)
Lord, here I am. How strange it is, that some days feel like hurricanesand others like glassy seasand others like nothing much at all. Today is a cosmic shrug. My day planner says,rather conveniently,that I will not need you,cry for you, reach for you. Ordinarily, I might not think of you at all. Except, if […]
A Blessing for when you need to put one foot in front of the other
Oh God,the thought of trying for a new and improved me makes me tired.I am barely getting anywhere,so draw me closer to a different vision,one that sees that I don’t need perfection— I need love. Free me from the expectation that life should always be better.The everyday stressors—the bills, the pressure, the dependents,the existential fears […]
A Blessing for When Your Family Disappoints You
God, the very people who are supposed tolove me and know me best have let me down. I don’t know if I’ll be able to find a way forward. I’m losing my sense of homeand the reality of it fills me with a kind of fear.However big, however small,this pain feels unforgivable. I know they’re […]
A Blessing to Take What You Need
The feeder is empty againand no one is claiming that the birds are greedyfor taking what they pleased. Look at how the fat, pink flowersare weighing the end of each branch,sucking nutrients into each velvet petal.How selfish. Nature hungers, takes and needs.God, why can’t I? Blessed are we, learning to take what we need.Sleeping past […]
A Blessing for Easter Sunday
An Easter blessing It is an astonishing thing to behold:That a seed falls, and entombed there in the damp earthit swells and cracks open, unfolding to reveala tender root searching downward,a bright shoot rising upward toward the light,becoming this material wonder we call a plant. Just so, the physical body of Jesus was entombed, hidden […]
