Thanksgiving Blessing and Mandala

Bless the Absence @ Bo Mackison

A Thanksgiving Blessing

Bless the beginning and the end
and all moments in between.

Bless those in-between moments, long pauses,
interminable wait or – paradoxically –
too much action. A blur, a flash, a crash.

Bless this very moment.
Bless me, sitting at my desk
as filtered November light slips
through my window
and casts its blessing
upon these written words.

Bless this moment of routine and ritual
In the midst of the ordinary and mundane
In between the common and the trivial.

In the midst of unspeakable despair
there lingers persistent hope,
a relentless awareness of what is.
Bless that.

Bless the quiet night
the firelight,
the dark shiver and the cold.

Bless the dream unfolding in sleep
and the dreamer;
Bless the seeds resting in frozen earth
foretellers of life.

Bless a pale sun that casts blue shadows on crested snow;
Bless the lakes and rivers in their icy embrace.

Bless us, in our silence and our singing,
in our laughter and our weeping.

Bless the common ordinary moments
which would be missed – with longing –
if they were to disappear.

Bless the absence in the presence
and the presence in the absence.

Bless this moment.
Bless us all.