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 […]
Blessings
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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. […]
