Curations: Enduring Blessing
Jan Richardson is one of my favorite poets, especially because her poetry is rooted in a deep theology. She is also a person who has known the deep pain of loss, losing her husband just a few years ago.
Her poems are usually structured as blessings...even when you wouldn't think there would be a space or place for blessing. Which may be what makes them so unique and so powerful.
The poem of hers below is one meant for All Hallow's Eve and All Saints Day, when our sacred calendar gives an opportunity (in her words)
to do what so many of us do throughout the year: to remember beloved ones who are no longer here but who somehow journey with us still.
...who endure with a stubborn love that persists across time.
I hope you find a blessing in her words.
- GJD
"Enduring Blessing" by Jan Richardson
What I really want to tell you is to just lay this blessing on your forehead, on your heart; let it rest in the palm of your hand, because there is hardly anything this blessing could say, any word it could offer to fill the hollow.
Let this blessing work its way into you with its lines that hold nearly unspeakable lament.
Let this blessing settle into you with its hope more ancient than knowing.
Hear how this blessing has not come alone— how it echoes with the voices of those who accompany you, who attend you in every moment, who continually whisper this blessing to you.
Hear how they do not cease to walk with you, even when the dark is deepest.
Hear how they encompass you always— breathing this blessing to you, bearing this blessing to you still.