Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

My favorite modern Irish poet is John O'Donohue, who just died in 2008, way too young. You're probably familiar with him and this poem, but if you're not, it's too great a gift not to share. (The title means "Blessing," a curragh is a sort of canvas boat, and Josie was his mother.)

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 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, To Bless The Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings. Doubleday, 2008. 10-11.

He also writes in his book Anam Cara, "You can search far and in hungry places for love. It is a great consolation to know that there is a wellspring of love within yourself.... When you have moments on your own or spaces in your time, just focus on the well at the root of your soul. Imagine that nourishing stream of belonging, ease, peace, and delight. Feel, with your visual imagination, the refreshing waters of that well gradually flowing up through the arid earth of the neglected side of your heart. It is helpful to imagine this particularly before you sleep. Then during the night you will be in constant flow of enrichment and belonging. You will find that when you awake at dawn, there will be a lovely, quiet happiness in your spirit."

John O'Donohue, Anam Cara, Cliff Street Books, and imprint of HarperCollins, 1997. 28

(By the way, the poem "Beannacht" is also published on the dedication page of Anam Cara.)

"Feel, with your visual imagination..." and "...that nourishing stream of belonging, ease, peace, and delight." The visceral, visual imagination . An enormous power that we carry, that we can access just by noticing, by intentional attention, a power we can enhance with practice.

Everyone in the household is sort of sick. My Irish husband is even sick enough to stay home from work, which is unusual. Yet I look out at the brightening light of the day, and I know myself happy, just happy.

This morning I had emails from friends, real communications. I have "real" friends, and family who love me and whom I love, and that makes me happy. I have creature comforts of all sorts: water (hot and cold, clean, running! I will never take that for granted), food, clothing, shelter. These help make me happy. I know the blessing of peace in my heart, in spite of all the troubles around us, and I find simple delight in daily routine, and in nature, and in all sorts of the arts, and in the sciences... I have enough; I know myself just happy.

I wish you, also, all the blessings from the poem, from the wellspring of love within yourself. May you have them, and know you have them. May you find yourself happy.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!