Nicky | Pilgrim's Perch

The Beauty of Blessing

So many conversations end with that throw-away line, ‘Bless you’ – and it is indeed a gentle and kind way to finish an encounter with someone. But just what do we mean by ‘blessing’? For some it has a religious connotation; for others it’s a way of wishing ‘all the best’.

Some blessings are specific; others are a kind of catch-all ‘I hope everything goes well with you.’ No matter how we define it, our hope is that it makes the recipient feel cared-for, protected and supported.

The priest and poet John O’Donohue defined ‘blessing’ as –

‘a circle of light drawn around a person to protect, heal and strengthen.’
Benedictus: A Book of Blessings

He goes on to describe how blessing can draw the person from brokenness to wholeness.

Using the analogy of a wound John O’Donohue says this –

‘When you have a cut on your hand, it always heals from the edges; the centre is the last place to heal. Clearly it is not the wound that has finally relented, and decided to heal itself. Rather it is the surrounding health and wholesomeness of your body that invades the stricken place with healing. The mind of blessing is wise and it knows that whatever torments or diminishes a person cannot be healed simply from within that diminishment; consequently it addresses the wholeness and draws that light and healing into the diminished area. When someone blesses you, the fruits of healing may surprise you and seem to come from afar. In fact, they are your own natural serenity and sureness awakening and arriving around you.’

There is a peculiar sense of beauty about this concept of the fruits of healing coming from afar. Sometimes we receive blessing from unexpected sources – ‘from afar.’ The benefit comes unbidden and unlooked for.

Perhaps we’ve searched all the obvious places and found them empty. The tried and trusted methods no longer work; the paths we used to tread no longer take us to a happy place. And then, suddenly, something clicks, the dark lifts and light floods in. The blessing comes from afar but it may well have been with us for a long time. As TS Eliot said –

‘We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time.’
Little Gidding

And that is a blessing indeed…

Northern Lights

Over the last week or so there have been some incredible displays of the Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis. Not something that trips lightly off the tongue but, if you are fortunate enough to experience this wonderful sight, it is an experience that will stay with you for a long time.

*Aurora Borealis* – or *Aurora Australis* if you’re ‘down under’

Usually the Aurora Borealis are seen in northern latitudes – northern Scotland, Scandinavia and areas north of the Arctic circle. But just lately, as a result of severe space weather conditions, they have been seen in many parts of the UK. (You won’t see Northern Lights if you live in the southern hemisphere – BUT you may well see the Southern Lights, or Aurora Australis.)

The Lights appear as vast expanses of colour – green, pink, red, yellow, blue and violet. These patches shift and change, creating spectacular dance-like movements in the sky. They are best seen away from areas of light pollution and they can extend from 50 to 400 miles above the Earth’s surface. The lights occur due to solar activity as charged particles in the solar wind collide with molecules in the upper atmosphere. Solar winds are the result of charged particles streaming away from the sun at speeds of up to one million miles per hour and when the magnetic polarity of the solar wind is opposite the Earth’s magnetic field the two combine to allow the energy particles to flow into the Earth’s magnetic north and south poles.

The colours vary depending on what gases are given off during the collision. Oxygen gives green light lower down and red higher up; nitrogen causes blue and violet colours. But if all the science is making your brain spin don’t worry about it – just enjoy the amazing effects produced and be happy that you are able to experience it. It truly is one the world’s greatest wonders.

One of the wonders of the natural world…

The Arrival of Spring

In the northern hemisphere many people have found that the long drawn out winter has seemed endless. The 21st March brings the spring equinox, when the length of the daylight equals the length of the nightlight. There is a noticeable shift in the quality of the light, too.

A grey day hanging over from a long winter

The flat grey days of winter with occasional brilliant contrasting shafts of bright light when the sun does shine give way to a more intense sunlight with a real feeling of warmth.

Splashes of bright and dazzling sun at last

The wind, when it blows, can still be harsh; sleet showers can catch us unawares but more often than not the rain falls more gently, more softly. The birds are singing; their joyful songs can be heard more and more early in the morning, and they continue late into the evening.

Joyful scents, colours and textures of spring

Life is just bursting to get going again after the slack time of winter when all has seemed to be asleep. Out in the garden you can sense the change. One garden writer has said, ‘This is the real thing and by the end of March any sane person is in a state of intoxication, falling in love again with this strange world.’

And indeed it really is a time to get out into the open, to notice the changes the light and the weather undergo; to relish the scent of the spring air, the heady perfume from cut grass, pine resin, sudden floral outbursts from daffodils, hyacinths, violets and other wonderful spring flowers.