When we lead residential retreats and eat together, we often invite the group to give a blessing before each meal. It’s a practice I sometimes do at home, and always one of those little moments on retreat that I intend to pull back into my life, though it often slips.
(Even now, as I’m writing this, I realize I just ended up eating what will probably be my dinner, though it was intended to just be a snack when I started it, and that is often what happens! Note to self.)
I have had this poem on my bed-side table for years now, and recently I’ve been trying to memorize it, so it was on my mind during Portals of Pleasure. I shared it as a breakfast blessing one morning, and now here, I share it with you, too.
Why I Wake Early
by Mary Oliver
Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who make the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and crotchety–
best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light–
good morning, good morning, good morning.
Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.
Do you have a blessing practice around meals? What are the blessings that you use? Just curious … maybe if I found one that resonated, it’d be easier to practice.
xo,
Zed
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