Every day is a blessing
“Bless to me the light on the ocean
Bless to me waves of grass
Bless to me fiery red leaves of the saxifrage
May I keep this in my heart
May I be a blessing for others
May I never forget this connection
Guide me on my path
Guide me on The Way
Bless to me”
Wow, what day. Yesterday, you might remember, we thought about offering hospitality to the divine so that we might follow the path as it comes. This, of course means having a flexible mind. Today, we used our flexibility and the rewards were many.
The day started with a meditation to deepen our sense of divine mystery and to dissolve our sense of separation. After breakfast, we all gathered and Susan taught us about the Celtic tradition of blessing. You see this all the time here on the isle with people blessing you in words and deeds constantly. This is intervowen into the hospitality. Susan invited us to explore this concept of blessing in our lives and also taught us how to write a traditional Celtic blessing. My attempt is the quote above.
Some of us just relaxed in this amazing studio space until yoga time. It was lovely to have everyone come to yoga today, and as a community with our bodies and spirits we explored the concept of awakening to the gifts and blessing of the day and of the retreat.
We all enjoyed a lovingly prepared lunch and then many of us joined Scott for our last hike of the journey, which was more exploration of the burren landscape, this just north of the cliffs of moher on the coast. This is where the flexible mind came in as the weather forecast had been for rain for today all week, but it looked likely to stay clear, so we took the outside agenda. We were well rewarded as it did not, in fact, rain until we got back to our cars after 3 hours of exploration. We saw many new varieties of arctic and tropical flowers, neolithic ruins, many limestone formations and a wonderful glacial canyon.
Others of our group followed their own inspiration for a trip up to see the city of Galway in one car and a visit to the cemetery of ancestors for another car. Both were greeted with the delights of Irish blessing and hospitality on their journeys, and it was fun to share our adventures when we came together for dinner.
Jumping back to the return from our adventures, the retreat staff once again had lit the fires in the living rooms which were so welcoming as we returned, because, while it did not rain, it was a grey day.
Dinner again delicious and we all lingered as it was our last meal together.
After dinner, we all gathered in one of the retreat center living rooms for our closing circle. We shared the blessings which we wrote, our resident limerick composer recited his week’s worth of limericks AND sang a song, which was a beautiful Irish ballad. There were not many dry eyes after that one! Enlightened by everyone’s creativity, we all go to bed, blessed indeed.
How might your day be affected if today you go about offering and receiving blessing to everyone and everything you encounter in your path?
Copyright 2019 Nancy C Murray
