The Gifts of a Changing World

Our first blessing

This month, we close this “Year of Living with Change” by considering the importance of blessing, and I turn to John O’Donohue’s wisdom in his beautiful book, To Bless the Space Between Us. He says, “We enter the world as strangers who all at once become heirs to a harvest of memory, spirit and dream that has long preceded us and will now enfold, nourish and sustain us.”

“The gift of the world,” he notes, “is our first blessing.”

It is December. In my northern part of the world, it is a season of lengthened nights and frozen land. So one act of blessing I enjoy is arranging evergreens with other natural objects and things that sparkle and lights that shine. The arrangements are for my home and for friends, reminders of nature’s longer arc of greenery and light in which this dormant winter season rests. In that sense, the arrangements are blessings that point toward what is often invisible at this time of year; they point toward a larger wholeness across time and seasons.

In the video below, I welcome you into my porch workshop where I make these arrangements and offer a few more thoughts about the nature and gifts of blessing.

If you wish to join an online session of guided reflection and conversation, we’ll share blessings on the threshold Tuesday, December 12, 7-8:30 pm CT. Anyone can register through the cosponsoring retreat centers, the Christine Center and Prairiewoods. Or if you are a Threshold Times paid subscriber, you will find a link to register as a benefit of your subscription at the bottom of this email.