Self Blessing

Last weekend I spent a day with three dear friends who touched me with their words of love. We laughed, we cried and we all found ourselves “home” again.

I feel so fortunate.

“Sometimes it is necessary to re-teach a thing its loveliness”(Galway Kinnell). So true. When we feel despair, unworthy, broken, each of us needs others to show us the way back home to ourselves. Back home to our wholeness.

I’d like to share this blessing poem, with words to give you perspective on returning to wholeness.

Saint Francis and the Sow

The bud
stands for all things,
even for those things that don’t flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on the brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;
as Saint Francis
put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow
began remembering all down her thick length,
from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of the tail,
from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine
down through the great broken heart
to the sheer blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering
from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking and blowing beneath them:
the long, perfect loveliness of sow.
By Galway Kinnell

Self Blessing Practice

When I read the words “self blessing” in the poem I felt a practice “blooming” into life. It’s a practice that includes equal parts of nourishing breath, compassion sent directly to the heart, a pause to take in the warmth of self love and the willingness to shift so that the bud within you that is wound so tight begins to ever so gently spin open. Opening you toward wholeness.

There is a healing power within each of us and it’s called compassion.

Try it now.

This entry was posted in beauty, practices, ritual. Bookmark the permalink. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

    You will also receive a complimentary subscription to my ezine Creating Space with practical tips and inspirational perspectives. I respect your privacy and will never ever share your contact information.