Embracing the darkness

Another "to absent friends" event this evening at Falkland Stables.

We walked in the starlit darkness with the cold wind on our faces-a group of strangers on a cold night.

Setting our lotus cradles on the water proved difficult in the wind so we brought them back inside and arranged them on the floor.

Light and stories and remembrance held in the landscape.

Beannacht (Blessing)

On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.
And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

When the canvas grays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

John O'Donohue