A huge thank you to everyone who left such encouraging comments on my last post!
As a way to ease back into posting while I try to catch up on seeing what's new in your life, I thought I'd share these thoughts from John O'Donohue in his book Beauty. Perhaps it will help one or two of you as much as it has me.
"Many of the most luminous gifts of our lives
arrive as complete surprises…
It comes ashore in our hearts carefully formed to fit
exactly the shape of a hunger we might
not even know we had…
Sometimes it is difficult to know
when you are getting a gift…
The beauty of the gift is the secret way
it awakens us to growth…
much of the change in our lives happens
through struggle and pain.
We are confronted with an unattractive
direction that we have to take.
For weeks or months we have to travel through limbo;
the comfort and security of our familiar
belonging lies far behind us.
Where we will belong next has not yet become clear.
The days become a struggle of endurance.
Yet when the light and the ease return,
we recognize the change that has been achieved.
The gift bequeaths change in a
completely different way.
Quietly it undoes the knots of false netting
that had us entangled and before
we have time to realize what has happened,
we find ourselves released into a new fluency.
Like a parent to the soul,
the gift carries us carefully over torn ground
until our feet stand free in a serene place
where we can recognize that we have been blessed."
from John O'Donohue's Beauty
May each difficult path you and I encounter this week bring us unexpected luminous gifts.
My love to each of you,
Dewena
