“Look, the world
is always ending
somewhere…
[and] there is nothing
a blessing
is better suited for
than an ending…
This blessing
will not fix you,
will not mend you…
it will not talk to you
about one door opening
when another one closes.
It will simply
sit itself beside you
among the shards
and gently turn your face
toward the direction
from which the light
will come,
gathering itself
about you
as the world begins
again.”
– Excerpted from “When the World is Ending” by Jan Richardson
I find these words about blessing by Jan Richardson to be exquisite. A blessing is something that is often sought and conferred by another. But what Richardson offers is something far more accessible and real: a blessing “will not fix or mend you.” It is something that we come to realize accompanies us, sits with us amongst the shards of ruin in our lives. Blessing is that which ever so gently “turns our face toward the direction from which the light will come…”
Notice that Richardson doesn’t say that it turns our faces to the light. Blessing turns our face in a direction away from ruin toward the place where light will break in toward us. Blessing allows light to wrap itself around us where we are and leads us toward a world and a life able to begin again.
May we all receive this blessing…
Peace, Shalom, Salaam,
Rev.Lo