a blessing for learning to delight again

Blessed are you, the pragmatic.
You who have run the math and know what adds up…
and what doesn’t.
You have set it all down.
You who don’t hope or dream or plan anymore because… what’s the point?

But blessed are you, learning to live here.
Your world has shrunk.
Pain or grief or fear has sucked up
every bit of oxygen from the room
and every ounce of delight has been squeezed from your hands.

But blessed are we,
who discover that even in the smallness,
our attention might compress even more.

We who pull out a magnifying glass
to discover… to notice… to taste… to smell…
the small joys and simple pleasures that make a life worth living.

You who wear the fancy blouse
because it makes you feel nice,
long after you thought your body was worth decorating.
You who eat the over-the-top meal because that is what today can afford.

you who make the memory and plan the trip and who snap a picture because we know that this one, wild, precious life might cost us everything… so why not make it not just bearable, but beautiful.

Looking for more blessings?

The Lives We Actually Have is a collection of 100 blessings to bless the ordinary, garbage, lovely, or grief-stricken days. You know, the days we actually have. So if you want a beautiful collection of blessings to return to time and again or to give to a friend, this is for you.

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