A New Year’s blessing for a world in need of healing.

I first heard this poem while listening to the On Being podcast. It is such a beautiful reminder of the support and beauty that is all around us - even in the darkest of moments. May you benefit from the medicine these words offer. May the next year bring safety and liberation for all. May 2024 be the year that Palestine is free.

Beannacht

For Josie

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 gray window

And the ghost of loss

Gets into you,

May a flock of colors,

Indigo, red, green,

And azure blue,

Come to awaken in you

A meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays

In the Curragh of thought

And the 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

(From To Bless The Space Between Us; A book of Blessings, by John O’Donohue}

To hear this poem read by O’Donohue, visit the On Being podcast here. The reading can be found under “extras”.