We bless this year for all we have learned,
+ John O’Donohue
For all we loved and lost
And for the quiet way it brought us
Nearer to our invisible destination.
Time has taken us by the hand and led us along many strange paths.
Ways we had not expected to walk.
People we never thought we’d meet.
Lessons we didn’t know we needed to learn.
And yet here we are at this threshold again, harvesting the fruit of the year.
With gratitude for all that has been sown and all that has grown, with or without our active engagement…
Cheering you on from a little valley in South West Wales.
~
AT THE END OF THE YEAR
The particular mind of the ocean
Filling the coastline’s longing
With such brief harvest
Of elegant, vanishing waves
Is like the mind of time
Opening the shapes of days.As this year draws to its end,
We give thanks for the gifts it brought
And how they became inlaid within
Where neither time nor tide can touch them.The days when the veil lifted
And the soul could see delight;
When a quiver caressed the heart
In the sheer exuberance of being here.Surprises that came awake
In forgotten corners of old fields
Where expectation seemed to have quenched.The slow, brooding times
When all was awkward
And the wave in the mind
Pierced every sore with salt.The darkened days that stopped
The confidence of the dawn.*
Days when beloved faces shone brighter
With light from beyond themselves;
And from the granite of some secret sorrow
A stream of buried tears loosened.We bless this year for all we have learned,
+ John O’Donohue, from Benedictus: A Book of Blessings, Bantam Press, 2007
For all we have loved and lost
And for the quiet way it brought us
Nearer to our invisible destination.