It’s Spring in the Northern Hemisphere. Near Santa Fe, New Mexico, where I live, the hummingbirds have returned and green is sprouting all around. The huge native cottonwood trees outside my bedroom window will soon wear a headdress of new growth.
I am so inspired by Nature! So much goes on underground before the green sprouts one day greet us. It’s the rebirth of the Mystery over and over again. We watch with a patient and compassionate eye, for this cycle is internal as well.
Nature blesses us with groundedness, beauty and oxygenating presence. Do you bless Nature? We can do this! We “witness and bless” as Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi would say. Bless the people you love with love. And more especially, bless the ones you don’t feel love for!
The act of blessing is an opening to wholeness, healing and forgiveness that you can do anytime, anywhere. You don’t need an ordination or religious affiliation or teacher. Blessing is soul to soul. We turn toward each other with our souls, and the soul itself is the source of blessing. It is similar to the Hindu greeting “Namaste”: the God in me salutes the God in you.
I bless you, dear ones, and all our relations. May these prayers and explorations continue to bring us together in praise and gratitude.
Sure, I’d like to look into your eyes and take your hand, but for now I’ll bless you with this article. Our kind acknowledgements often are expressed through thumbs-up symbols and smiley faces in texts and social media. I can even bless you with an emoji that I infuse with love and light, and then press send.
I feel inspired to share with you some of my favorite quotations about blessing:
The practice of blessing is a simple way to develop a constantly centered awareness. It is also a tool for growing in universal love and avoiding judgment. When you bless all those you meet in their total happiness and true integrity, without the slightest concern for their appearance, expression, race, class, sex, or any other label, when you wish them the very best from your innermost being, it is impossible for your heart not to expand. From a narrow cubicle, it will become a temple without walls.
~ Pierre Pradervand, The Gentle Art of Blessing
What is a blessing? A blessing is a circle of light drawn around a person to protect, heal, and strengthen. It would be infinitely looney to live in a world without blessing. The word blessing evokes a sense of warmth and protection; it suggests that no life is alone or unreachable. Each life is clothed in raiment of spirit that secretly links it to everything else. Though suffering and chaos befall us, they can never quench that inner light of providence.
~ John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us
“Blessing” is the ancient secret that releases us from life’s hurt long enough to replace it with another feeling. When we bless the people or things that have hurt us, we’re temporarily suspending the cycle of pain. Whether this suspension lasts for a nanosecond or an entire day makes no difference. Whatever the period of time, during the blessing a doorway opens for us to begin our healing and move on with life. The key is that for some period of time, we’re released from our hurt long enough to let something else into our hearts and minds.
~ Gregg Braden, Secrets of the Lost Mode of Prayer
Originally published at www.huffingtonpost.com on May 18, 2016.
Originally published at medium.com