A Blessing for Recovery

I bless you in the salvaging
of what really matters.

I bless your heart to be massaged
with finest balsam.

I bless all of your interactions
to be of compassionate understanding
and to resonate with healing sound.

I bless you with hands to uphold you
when you have no strength to stand.

I bless the wisdom of the ages to be clear,
a multitude of proverbs to fit your need.

I bless your own innate wisdom
to rise to the surface, benediction through pain.

I bless the silence of your day to be rich
and the moments to be calm water.

I bless you to receive the love bestowed
and to know yourself as never forgotten.

I bless the urgency of your spirit
to rest into the next step as it manifests.

I bless you to never feel lonely,
although tempted to feel so.

I bless you in the rejuvenations of time,
a journey with a particular pace.

I bless you to not feel rushed
and to be with the tears when they come.

I bless you to befriend your emotions
and to hear what each has to say.

I bless you to listen to your own inner voice,
the foresight of your life to surface.

I bless you to let things as they were, be as they were,
so that things as they are, may become.

I bless you with a handing over of reins,
a relinquishing of what can't be controlled.

I bless you to accept your limitations,
so that boundless measures may flow.

I bless you to lean back into the heartbeat
of the One who surrounds you, even now.

Jenneth Graser

Photography Faye Cornish Unsplash

A Blessing for Letting Go

I bless you with hands that open
under the pouring rain.

I bless you with a parchment
scraped clean, and made palimpsest ready.

I bless your old photographs,
and black and white memories.

I bless the letters you always wanted to write
to be swept up on the north wind, delivered

and the smiles long in coming
to ripple the day like tides on the shore.

I bless your soul with deep satisfaction
in the already and the not as yet.

I bless the mistakes you have made
to become for you a sage on a hill.

I bless your regrets to be your teachers
and your dreams to glow with a flame
that doesn't die out.

I bless your abundance to be generous
and your words to be good seed on the ground.

I bless your precious secrets to grow wings
and fly into the eternal light.

I bless your gifts and your talents
the hard work, and sweat of your brow.

I bless them to be taken and multiplied with always
more than enough to remain.

I bless your friendships and relationships
to oil your heritage with grace upon grace.

I bless the old conversations
to fall with leaves to the ground.

I bless you to let go of things as you
thought they would, could or should be
and surrender to ease your brow with what is.

I bless you with a celebration of wrinkles,
with the applause of a job well done.

I bless you with a laying down of what is heavy
and acceptance for what is to come.

I bless your hands to remain open
and your possessions to be weightless in your home.

I bless your palms to be willing
to receive what is on its way, a gift.

Jenneth Graser

Photography Oliver Pacas Unsplash

Relinquish the Words

You may be walking into a forest

and smelling everything -

the cones crushed underfoot,

the sap rising.

You may be navigating stones

on the shore of countless waves.

You may be learning to re-love

your own heart again

and making time for a line of birds

on the mid-point of the horizon.

You may be wondering whatever 

happened to the grace of first wonder?

You may be checking yourself

for holes in your pockets.

But your body is surrounded by trees and water,

your mind is bowing down

and your spirit is in tune with all wings.

You may be wondering what you are doing

here after all these years?

You may be pausing to observe the hour.

Waves thrust your toes deep into sand

and you stumble upon the sky speaking

your language.

You are being birthed upon yourself

and learning to relinquish the words

for the meaning,

while feathers drift out of the sun

and settle at your feet.

Jenneth Graser

Photography Aaron Burden Unsplash

Back to the Basics

There were too many ways of trying to figure everything out.
So we succumbed to the beguiling sky.
We lay under the highness of it
and waited for the first stars.

It was going back to the basics that shifted things.
It was stopping and looking.

Let God be God, they said.
And when the weather turns upon the cloud
and the horizon thrusts forth with brazened colour
when the winds thrash the sand from the shore
and the ship does not stay true to the mark
when the harbour is too far a shelter,

then we lay down and feel the earth
beneath our hearts, growing
and we watch for the garden's secrets.

We climb into the trees
and make time for silly things
that we are always too busy to make time for.

We remember that all can change in a moment
and that we cannot hold the heavy stuff
for one more minute of the day.

God, you are God in me.  You are being God in me.
And I. I am letting it rest.
No more trying, I said that the last time.
And now I mean it.

Jenneth Graser

Photography Johannes Plenio Unsplash

Space for Loving

You have always believed the best about me.
I have been cradled in faith from my birth.
Your emphasis is on what love can see.

Not on my own limitations
Or even on what I dream or envision.
When I learn to let go of what I want so badly,
My efforts drain out into your ability.

Comforter of broken passions,
Deliverer of sunken intention,
You have brought me into the space for loving.

You are weeding from me what hinders,
You sow in me what grows from faith alone.

It is better to believe and feel the blood flow through.
It is better to relinquish crusty longings.
It is better to throw off stale perspectives
To make room for what only love can do.

Jenneth Graser

Love is Never Wasted

We have opened our hands
to let go of the final precious offerings.

There is nothing left in our control.
Now the pallette is empty
for a deposit of your colour.
Now the parchment has been erased
for the readiness of your pen.

Our relationships have been
relinquished on your threshold.

Where we have been unable
to make things right,
our forgiveness may be the gift
that reconciles, or your unseen hands
may sculpt a new possibility.

Letting go may be a kite of dreams
that sets free the seeds of grace,
for in another realm we may wait to truly know
each other once again.

How many seeds are planted in love
only to bear fruit in eternity?

As many seeds we may sow
and never see the harvest this side,
may be planted in eternal realms
to become fruit for the lips of God.

Love is never wasted
and will always cause growth
hidden in our everlasting souls,
in our physical realm made manifest,
or in the Spirit, as yet unfelt, we may never know.

But we can rest in the knowledge
of love that always bears the fruits of peace
and takes what is stretched out,
our palms open as wings,
finally able to feel space enough
to take to the sky,

unencumbered by the weight of
trying to bear matters
that belong in the care of God alone.

Jenneth Graser

Photography Kyle Szegedi

Eye of the Storm

There are contentious blowouts
across borders.

What is right, what is wrong?
Clouded issues fraying patience.

Trust calls you to places
the outcome is not certain.

Lean into the chest of greater grace.
The best is yet to come.

Though clouded be the skies for a time,
one ray of light comes breaking through
and perspective changes.

Some things cannot be worked out in the mind.

Feel the weight of your knees press into the earth
with the hope of surrender.

When you release all possibility into the hands
of belonging, you find peace.

Out of chaos, you will rest in the eye of the storm;
not a breath of wind can reach you here.

Stay until you know it is time
to move on.

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 23 Prompt - blowout

Artist unknown

Places to Return To

Having left, there is no desire to return.
Cut the ties and make a run for it.

Delve head-first into a new job,
be there for your new friends.

Write a letter to the past, seal it,
as it drifts into the fireplace.
Watch it burn.

Too many post-it notes on too
many places reminding you of
things to do, places to go, people to see.

Running the rat race full throttle
into the future with both hands
making a grab for success.

It is time to face the people
you left at the threshold of the door.

Mount your horse and ride
back the way you came.

Feel the tears rise as you approach
your failures, with determination.

It is here you will learn to make
peace with yourself;
to forgive, to let resistance go
to align with grace.

Everything familiar and same old
same old, begins to recalibrate -
when you embrace what you left
behind,
in order to find everything new.

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 9 Prompt - post-it

Photography - annagorin.com

Listen to "Here and Now" - Will Reagan

What Hurts and what is Healing

I find myself open to sound,
Quiet on the morning's gift.

Dancing waves of Arabic rhythm
Syncopate with the formation of
Every letter on the page.

There is forgiveness to be released.
Myself reminded, our own treasures
Grow in the blessings we bestow, unmerited.

People wait today
For art to dip into their pain with something
To show how grateful adoration
Appeases loss.

People waiting as a gift between the
Holding walls of my abode.

The gift I capture with my hands
Open wide in thanks, to let each soar away
And settle on my shoulder
Of their own free choice.

I find myself a radiant blessing on the eye's
Reflection of the man who loves me so;
He does not need reminding that his bliss is mine
And mine is to be his, always.

I find myself open, and opening wider.
I find myself new and old, both new and old.

I find myself placed, inside the place
That feels just right for me to be for
Now, alongside what hurts and is healing,

Both: what hurts and what is healing.

Jenneth Graser

Artist - Christian Schloe