A Birthday Blessing
Today is my birthday: May 11, 1939. (You can do the math.) I was born at Fort
Riley, Kansas. In June of ’39, my father was transferred to the military
staff at Texas A&M University. As the saying goes, “I got to Texas as soon as I could.”
Some years ago, my late wife introduced me to a special book, “To Bless the Space Between Us (A Book of Blessings)” by John O’Donohue. It is beautifully written and shows that tireless wisdom can bring an amazing understanding about ourselves and the world around us.
On my birthday, I want to share with you his ‘birthday blessing’ applicable to each of us regardless of when our birthday might be.
Blessed be the mind that dreamed the day
the blueprint of your life
would begin to glow on earth,
illuminating all the faces and voices
that would arrive to invite
your soul to growth.
Praised be your father and mother,
who loved you before you were,
and trusted to call you here
with no idea who you would be.
Blessed be those who have loved you
into becoming who you were meant to be,
blessed be those who have crossed your life
with dark gifts of hurt and loss
that have helped to school your mind
in the art of disappointment.
When desolation surrounded you,
blessed be those who looked for you
and found you, their kind hands
urgent to open a blue window
in the gray wall formed around you.
Blessed be the gifts you never notice,
your health, eyes to behold the world,
thoughts to countenance the unknown,
memory to harvest vanished days,
your heart to feel the world’s waves,
your breath to breathe the nourishment
of distance made intimate by earth.
On this echoing-day of your birth,
may you open the gift of solitude
in order to receive your soul;
enter the generosity of silence
to hear your hidden heart;
know the serenity of stillness
to be enfolded anew
by the miracle of your being."
Enjoy, whether it’s your birthday or not (and keep this for your day).
