Beannacht

I didn't write this, but I wish I had...

On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.

 

And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

 

When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

 

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

 

- John O'Donohue 

My favorite part?  Quite possibly, the currach of thought.  The slow wind is a good contender though. Beannacht is Gaelic for "blessing."  So happy Wednesday and bennacht to all.

The Parting Glass

I came across this song recently and found its sentiment acutely timely for me.

It is an old Scottish folk song. It may be happy, it may be sad, it may be both. It will be whatever you want it to be.

So to all who are left behind, "Goodnight and joy be with you all."

Cabbages and kings

"The time has come," the Walrus said,

"To talk of many things:

Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax—

Of cabbages—and kings—

And why the sea is boiling hot—

And whether pigs have wings."

~Lewis Carroll

Through the Looking-Glass

Carefully stringing unlikely words together is one way to perform magic. The words above are especially magical to me. I do not know what they mean.

But they still mean something to me.

They put me in mind of two of my other favorite pieces of lyricality...

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night

Sailed off in a wooden shoe---

Sailed on a river of crystal light,

Into a sea of dew.

"Where are you going, and what do you wish?"

The old moon asked the three.

"We have come to fish for the herring fish

That live in this beautiful sea;

Nets of silver and gold have we!"

Said Wynken,

Blynken,

And Nod.

~Eugene Field

Wknken, Blynken and Nod

and...

While Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters

Sons of bankers, sons of lawyers

Turn around and say good morning to the night

For unless they see the sky

But they can't and that is why

They know not if it's dark outside or light

~Elton John and Bernie Taupin

"Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters"

on Honky Château

Elton, Eugene and Lewis - strange bedfellows, yes? Perhaps. But in my mind, these pieces all fit together into a type of goodness that I don't know how to categorize.

Shoes, ships, sealing wax, cabbages, and kings or wooden shoes, crystal light, seas of dew and wishes from the moon or Mona Lisas, mad hatters, bankers' sons, lawyers' sons, night and sky. What does it all have in common? What does any of it mean? Nothing and everything all at once. Kind of like goats and violins and happiness or clocks and elephants and toothpick buildings.

These are the things that art can do to us. Art can bring to our consciousness an awareness of something we cannot explain and never anticipated (at least consciously). And this leaves us fuller than when we never knew there was something missing.