It is forbidden to taste of the pleasures of
this world without a blessing. --The Talmud
Pronounce a Silent Blessing
--by Barbara
Brown Taylor, syndicated from awakin.org, May 08,
2016
I
think that the best way to discover what pronouncing blessings is all about is
to pronounce a few. The practice itself will teach you what you need to know.
Start with anything you like. Even a stick lying on the ground will do. The
first thing to do is to pay attention to it. [...] The more aware you become,
the more blessings you will find. If you look at the stick long enough, you are
bound to begin making it a character in your own story. It will begin to remind
you of someone you know, or a piece of furniture you once saw in a craft co-op.
There is nothing wrong with these associations, except that they take you away
from the stick and back to yourself. To pronounce a blessing on something, it is
important to see it as it is.
What
purpose did this stick serve? Did a bird sit on it? Did it bear leaves that
sheltered the ground from the hottest summer sun? At the very least, it
participated in the deep mystery of drawing water from the ground, defying the
law of gravity to deliver moisture to its leaves. How does a stick do that,
especially one this size? Smell it. Is the scent of sap still there?
This
is no less than the artery of a tree that you are holding in your hand. Its
tissue has come from the sun and from the earth. Put it back where you found it
and it will turn back into earth again. Dust to dust and ashes to ashes. Will
you say a blessing first? No one can hear you, so you may say whatever you like.
[...]
As
I said earlier, the practice itself will teach you what you need to know. Start
throwing blessings around and chances are you will start noticing all kinds of
things you never noticed before. The next time you are at the airport, try
blessing the people sitting at the departure gate with you. Every one of them is
dealing with something significant. See that mother trying to contain her
explosive two-year-old? See that pock-faced boy with the huge belly? Even if you
cannot know for sure what is going on with them, you can still give a care. They
are on their way somewhere, the same way you are. They are between places too,
with no more certainty than you about what will happen at the other end.
Pronounce
a silent blessing and pay attention to what happens in the air between you and
that other person, all those other people. [...] All I am saying is that anyone
can do this. Anyone can ask and anyone can bless, whether anyone has authorized
you to do it or not. All I am saying is that the world needs you to do this,
because there is a real shortage of people willing to kneel wherever they are
and recognize the holiness holding its sometimes bony, often tender, always
life-giving hand above their heads. That we are able to bless one another at all
is evidence that we have been blessed, whether we can remember when or not. That
we are willing to bless one another is miracle enough to stagger the very
stars.
Excerpted
from An Altar in the World, by Barbara Brown Taylor. She
is a New York Times best-selling author, professor, and Episcopal
priest.
Be The Change: In over 80 countries of the
world yesterday was celebrated as Mother's Day. Today reconnect with that spirit
of motherly love out in the world -- and within your own heart. Do something
special for a maternal figure in your own life. And to step it up -- practice
holding a space of loving kindness in your heart for everyone, and everything
that you encounter today.
Sourced From www.dailygood.org
