Blessing one another

To bless means to say good things.  We have to bless one another constantly.  Parents need to bless their children, children their parents, husbands their wives, wives their husbands, friends their friends.  In our society, so full of curses, we must fill each place we enter with our blessings.  We forget so quickly that we are God's beloved children and allow the many curses of our world to darken our hearts.  Therefore we have to be reminded of our belovedness and remind others of theirs.  Whether the blessing is given in words or with gestures, in a solemn or an informal way, our lives need to be blessed lives.

Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey, September 7th

Have you been blessed lately? Are you reminded often enough of your belovedness? Do you remind others of theirs?

I've been extremely dizzy and quite nauseous these last days because the physio I'm doing for my imbalance seems to be making everything worse. Even so, I'm thinking about how blessed I am as I look at my still leaf picture and wear my prayer shawl, both gifts from people who are praying for me. My health issues are small in comparison to many, so I'm praying, too, for friends with different illnesses, particularly cancer, sending blessings their way.

Blessings come in so many different forms. A prayer, a phonecall, a hug, a letter, a kind word, a good deed. Those blessings that we give one another have been on my mind since I ran across this video about Woody Davis. I get the impression that he was pretty much the strong, silent type in his town, quietly blessing people before they even had a chance to notice. But when he was diagnosed with ALS, the shoe suddenly changed feet, and Woody was blessed in return. 

In a show I once saw, there was a song that told the story of a woman attending a funeral and being amazed at the floral arrangements. The chorus went something like, "Give me my flowers before I die." We're all called to bless, to show our love and appreciation before the special people in our lives aren't able to enjoy them. I'm happy to report that Woody Davis received the blessings of his community well before he died on August 5th.

This is a lovely little piece. Enjoy, and don't forget to spread some blessings! "Even angels like to know they've made a difference..."

Video from KarmaTube