I see you there, suffering alone,with the illness or pain that lingersthough friends do not,—or cannot. You, in isolation,locked in, or locked out. You, the caregiversstruggling in the certaintythat there is not enoughstrength, time or resources. You who counsel others in their trauma,but suffer deeply from your own. You who are grieving losses, too many […]
Blessings
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A Blessing for When It’s Too Much To Handle
God, our bodies remember the sleepless nights and cold sweats and unrelenting stress.Show us how to process all that we suffer. “How frail is humanity!How short is life, How full of trouble!”—Job 14:1, NLT Blessed are we, when we decide to make room for all of it,the fear and the gratitude, the complexity and the […]
A Blessing for The Lives We Didn’t Choose
Blessed are we in the tender place between curiosity and dread,We who wonder how to be whole,when dreams have disappeared and part of us with them,where mastery, control, determination, bootstrapping, and grit,are consigned to the realm of before (where most of the world lives),in the fever dream that promises infinite choices, unlimited progress, best life […]
A Blessing for This Beautiful, Limited Day
Blessed are we who see the impossibilityof solving today.It can’t be done. God, there are lists on listsand errands on errandsand a taste, like tin in our mouths,of the unfinishedness—the imperfectability—of our lives. Are we counting items instead of knowing what counts? God, help us live here,seeing the whole truth of what is. Blessed are […]
a blessing for all the firsts without a loved one
Oh God, the calendar tells me a big day is comingand this is the first one in this new reality.I don’t know how to get through it. Show me what to do withthe memories, the traditions,the pain, and the excruciating beautyof all that was. Blessed are we who come to you, oh God,in the midst […]
a blessing for those who keep watch over the sick
Sometimes love isn’t enough.It can’t save them, save us,save the life we had together. We are finite.And so much is out of our control. So bless the ones with the courageto walk all the way to the edge,who peer over the cliff . . .and feel the updraft of the abyss,and who will do it […]
a blessing for when you’re feeling grouchy
God,complaining is completely underrated. How else can I be honest? Every frustration has me spinning. And the sheer volumeand timing of each new problemhas me convinced this is a conspiracy. Are they trying to ruin this for me? I’m trying.I’m honestly trying here. God, come meet me here.Chip away at my chippiness.Calm my racing heart.Loosen […]
a blessing for friends who hold us up
God, you called me to lovebut people are inherently risky.Telling my story, being known, asking for help,complaining again aboutthe thing I worry might sound cliché by now. Shouldn’t I be over it already? But something is happening when I am known.I am becoming stronger somehow. I am reminded of the pillars I’ve seenholding up cathedrals.Flying […]
a blessing for a little boost in the morning
Today is new, oh God,The light is gathering and spilling onto everything. The sleeping and the sleepy.The trees brushing the window.Even the unwashed dishes know it’s time. What a gift.Unopened. Lord, you know the obstacle course ahead.The intractability of most of my problems.The irritations I will need to smile through.The forgetfulness that will undo my […]
A blessing for being human
Blessed are we, living in this small space, in these bodies we now inhabit, within the walls of circumstance, in these short years and finite strength, and with these eyes that see only so far. We are fragile, contingent beings. Yet blessed are we, recognizing that it is our limits as well as our gifts […]
A blessing for when you want to change
God, I carry around this incompleteness,this drive for fulfillment that always seems just around the corner.If only I could get it together and find my true calling,my real passion, or the right plan. God, help me, guide me. What am I missing? Blessed are we who strive earnestlyto change ourselves and the world around us,but […]
A Blessing for Christmas Day
God, this is a kind of magicthe way this day shines so strangely,how it sparkles beyond our understanding. (Yes, it was a disasterthe way the food turned out this yearand how what’s-her-face said (I told her not to)What shouldn’t be repeated.Again this year.) But, somehow, this daynever fails to awaken a longingto love well—or at […]
An Advent Blessing When You Need a Little Hope
We are saying Merry Christmasbut these are heavy days—for our struggling earth,for our countries and their leaders,our friends and families,and for ourselves. Blessed are we with eyes open to seethe world as it really is,who say: where are you God? andwhere are your people?the smart and sensible oneswho fight for goodand have the power to […]
A blessing for when you’re tired of broken systems
Oh God, I am done with broken systemsthat break the very peoplethey are meant to serve. Harness this anger.Channel it into worthy action and show mewhat is mine to fix and what boundaries to patrolto keep goodness in and evil out. Blessed are we who are appalledthat brute ignorance can so easily dominateover decency, honesty, […]
A blessing for when you want to wake up to wonder
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, […]
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 […]
