(A blessing for those who have left us and for we who are still here – the author is John O’Donohue)
May you know that absence is alive with hidden presence, that nothing is ever lost or forgotten.
Not far from our home somebody made this sculpture/memorial for a good old dog who passed away. Good Boy!
May the absences in your life grow full of eternal echo.
May you sense around you the secret Elsewhere where the presences that have left you dwell.
May you be generous in your embrace of loss.
May the sore well of grief turn into a seamless flow of presence.
May your compassion reach out to the ones we never hear from.
May you have the courage to speak for the excluded ones.
Make you become the gracious and passionate subject of your own life.
May you not disrespect your mystery through brittle words or false belonging.
May you be embraced by God in whom dawn and twilight are one.
May your longing inhabit its dreams within the Great Belonging.
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Jean gave me a book of blessings, To Bless the Space Between Us by John O’Donohue. We read from it most mornings and take great inspiration from the reading. It is a wonderful way to start the day – a blessing in itself.