A modern blessing from an old soul...

I recently came across the work of John O'Donohue, a poet, hegelian philosopher, author and priest. He died in 2008, and he left us with a wealth of insights and perspectives on inner life and the ongoing work of being a human.

He wrote, "When you cease to fear your solitude, a new creativity awakens in you. Your forgotten or neglected wealth begins to reveal itself. You come home to yourself and learn to rest within. Thoughts are our inner senses. Infused with silence and solitude, they bring out the mystery of inner landscape." Words like this seemed to pour out of O'Donohue, and across his written pieces and lectures which can readily be found on YouTube - we are shown the possibility of a life well and fully lived.

Here is a blessing he wrote towards the end of his life.

Beannacht / Blessing

On the day when

the weight deadens

on your shoulders

and you stumble,

may the clay dance

to balance you.

And when your eyes

freeze behind

the grey window

and the ghost of loss

gets into you,

may a flock of colours,

indigo, red, green

and azure blue,

come to awaken in you

a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays

in the currach of thought

and a stain of ocean

blackens beneath you,

may there come across the waters

a path of yellow moonlight

to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,

may the clarity of light be yours,

may the fluency of the ocean be yours,

may the protection of the ancestors be yours.

And so may a slow

wind work these words

of love around you,

an invisible cloak

to mind your life.

John O'Donohue

from Echoes of Memory (Transworld Publishing, 2010)