I'm back.
Have You ever read Chicken Soup for the Soul? Chicken Soup for the Soul is a series of books, usually featuring a collection of short, inspirational stories and motivational essays. I used to have this Chicken Soup for the Soul phase and now I have a shelf dedicated to those books. I owe a lot to those books, they've helped me so much in my times of trouble.
The other night as I was alone in my room feeling all restless. One of the books from the shelf- Chicken Soup for the Soul, Stories for a Better World- peeked out at me. I recalled a passage from this book which changed my life. A passage I came across while I was amid so much pain and sorrow, a passage that brought me through it all, a passage from God. That passage lifted me up and permanently changed the way I looked at the world, and turned my sorrow into something inexplicable. I owe a lot to that passage and I wouldn't be the same without it. Looking back, I could not possible have survived that period of sorrow without coming across this passage.
The world should read that beautiful passage. Here it is:The Gentle Art of Blessing by Pierre Pradervand
On awaking, bless this day, for it is already full of unseen good, which your blessings will call forth; for to bless is to acknowledge the unlimited good that is embedded in the very texture of the universe and await each and all.
On passing people in the street, on the bus, in places of work and play, bless them. The peace of your blessing will companion them on their way, and the aura of its gentle fragrance will be a light on their path.
On meeting people and talking to them, bless them in their health, their work, their joy, their relationship to the universe, themselves and others. Bless them in their abundance and their finances. Bless them in every conceivable way, for such blessings not only sow seeds of healing, but one day will spring forth as flowers in the waste places of your own life.
As you walk, bless the city in which you live, its government and teachers, its nurses and street sweepers, its children and bankers, its priest and prostitutes. The minute anyone expresses the least aggression or unkindness to you, respond with a blessing. Bless them totally, sincerely, joyfully, for such blessings are a shield that protects you from the ignorance of their misdeed, and deflects the arrow that was aimed at you.
To bless means to wish, unconditionally, total unrestricted good for others and events from the deepest chamber of your heart. It means to hallow, to hold in reverence, to behold with utter awe, that which is always a gift from the Creator. He who is hallowed by your blessing is set aside, consecrated, holy, whole. To bless is yet to invoke divine care upon, to speak or think gratefully for, to confer happiness upon- although we are never the bestower, but simply the joyful witnesses of life's abundance.
To bless all without discrimination of any sort is the ultimate form of giving because those you bless will never know from whence came the sudden ray that burst through the clouds of the skies, and you will rarely be a witness to the sunlight in their lives.
When you pass a hospital, bless its patience in their present wholeness, for even in their suffering, their wholeness awaits in them to be discovered. When your eyes behold a man in tears seemingly broken by life. bless him in his vitality and joy.
It is impossible to bless and judge at the same time. So hold constantly as a deep, hallowed, intoned thought the desire to bless, for truly then shall you become a peacemaker, and one day you shall behold, everywhere, the very face of God.
P.S. And, of course, above all, do not forget to bless the utterly beautiful person YOU are.
