Blessing for a Traveler
This entry was posted on 1/14/2010 11:29 PM and is filed under Around the World.
For the
Traveler
Every time you leave home,
Another road takes
you
Into a world you were never in.
New strangers on other paths
await.
New places that have never seen you
Will startle a little at your
entry.
Old places that know you well
Will pretend nothing
Changed since
your last visit.
When you travel, you find yourself
Alone in a
different way,
More attentive now
To the self you bring along,
Your
more subtle eye watching
You abroad; and how what meets you
Touches that
part of the heart
That lies low at home:
How you unexpectedly
attune
To the timbre in some voice,
Opening in conversation
You want to
take in
To where your longing
Has pressed hard enough
Inward, on some
unsaid dark,
To create a crystal of insight
You could not have
known
You needed
To illuminate
Your way.
When you
travel,
A new silence
Goes with you,
And if you listen,
You will
hear
What your heart would
Love to say.
A journey can become
a sacred thing:
Make sure, before you go,
To take the time
To bless
your going forth,
To free your heart of ballast
So that the compass of
your soul
Might direct you toward
The territories of spirit
Where you
will discover
More of your hidden life,
And the urgencies
That deserve
to claim you.
May you travel in an awakened way,
Gathered wisely
into your inner ground;
That you may not waste the invitations
Which wait
along the way to transform you.
May you travel safely, arrive
refreshed,
And live your time away to its fullest;
Return home more
enriched, and free
To balance the gift of days which call you.
~
John O'Donohue ~
(To Bless the Space Between
Us)
