Blessings – What are they? How do they come? What do they do for us? To bless is to acknowledge the sacredness that is all around us. To bless anything of creation, be this a person or an object, is to acknowledge the touch of the Creator upon that person or object.
Wherever we place our feet, wherever we are, can be a blessing, if we are aware of the inherent sacredness of the beauty of that place. What might that place be? Perhaps the heart of another person; a fluffy kitten playing with a ball of fluff; the beauty of a scene in nature…for a blessing to communicate joy and beauty to us, we need to be attentive.
Many people have blessed our lives. Most of them are probably unaware of how they have done this. They have blessed us by their smiles, their loving responses, their affirmation, their concern, their care………Once in a while, maybe they blessed us with special words and actions.
One such person who blessed my life in this way was May. May was a Kerry woman. I was just beginning to teach. Vulnerability and insecurity were looming very large for me. I needed strength and encouragement. May was very supportive. I don’t remember the words she said. I only remember the profound sense of gratitude that came over me. But her goodness was God’s gift to me. I often thought of her as I went to class.
You may be at a place in your life where you can easily resonate with blessings, of you may be in a place where you wonder if you have ever blessed been blessed.
Wherever we are, the invitation is to pause and believe in the power of blessings.
Memory is a precious gift. Indeed, our ability to remember our blessings fills our hearts with gratitude. Without memory, we would be unable to savour the good things that happened to us and for us. We would be unable to be healed from past painful situations. Memory can bless us or haunt us, depending on how we receive it and deal with it.
Each one of us has a huge store of memories. As we know only too well, some are not very pleasant and every now and then they are calling us to move on and dwell on the positive and wonderful memories with which we are abundantly blessed.
B. O’S