"A Blessing"

May the light of your soul guide you.

May the light of your soul bless the work

you do with the secret love and warmth of your heart.

May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul.

May the sacredness of your work bring healing,

light and renewal to those who work with you

and to those who see and receive your work.

May your work never weary you.

May it release within you wellsprings of

refreshment, inspiration and excitement.

May you be present in what you do.

May you never become lost in the bland absences.

May the day never burden.

May dawn find you awake and alert,

approaching your new day with dreams,

possibilities and promises.

May evening find you gracious and fulfilled.

May you go into the night blessed, sheltered and protected.

May your soul calm, console and renew you.

John O’Donohue

"Old age offers the opportunity ...."

Old age offers the opportunity to integrate and bring together the multiplicity of directions that you have travelled.  It is a time when you can bring the circle of your life together where your longing can be awakened and new possibilities come alive for you.

John O’ Donohue

"I would love to live ...."

“I would love to live

Like a river flows,

Carried by the surprise

Of its own unfolding.”

"If, as you age you become more still ...."

“If, as you age you become more still, you will discover that stillness can be a great companion.  The fragments of your life will have time to unify, the places where your soul shelter is wounded or broken will have time to knit and heal.  You will be able to return to your self.  In this stillness, you will engage your soul. ... (T.S. Eliot) ‘And the end of all our exploring/Will be to arrive where we started/And to know the place for the first time.’”

Blessed Longing

Blessed Longing

Tell no-one else, only the wise,

For the crowd will sneer at once.

I wish to praise what is fully alive,

What longs to flame towards death.

When the calm enfolds the love-nights

That created you, where you have created

A feeling from the Unknown steals over you,

While the tranquil candle burns.

You remain no longer caught

In the penumbral gloom

You are stirred and new, you desire

To soar to higher creativity.

No distance makes you ambivalent.

You come on wings, enchanted

In such hunger for light, you

Become the butterfly burnt to nothing.

So long as you have not lived this:

To die is to become new,

You remain a gloomy guest

On the dark earth.