Blessing

My favorite Bible stories center on blessings.  No one wanted a blessing more than Jacob.  He fooled his father.  He fought with God.  Before he died, Jacob offered his own blessings to his sons.  What were their thoughts as they kneeled before him receiving his words?  "Asher's food will be rich.  He will provide delicacies fit for a king."  What weight did Jacob's words hold?  Another story:  Hannah is weeping at the temple.  Eli responds.  Hannah is blessed.  Her son is born.  
And at last, there is the story of Jesus taking the children on his knee.  "Let them come to me," he said.  "I will bless them."   

 To Bless the Space Between Us is a book of blessings written as poems by John O'Donohue.  John understands a blessing's ethereal virtue.  They are more than gestures of good will.  They are "a gracious invocation where the human heart pleads with the divine heart."

                                                                                                                        Image link: Pinterest

Beannacht* by John O'Donohue

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 colors,
Indigo, red, green
And azure blue,
Come to awaken in you
A meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
In the curragh 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.

"Beannacht" is the Galic word for blessing.  Amazon link to John O'Donhue's book:  To Bless the Space Between Us

May light shine upon you.  May contentment latch your door.