On awakening, bless this day, for it is already full
of unseen good which your blessings will call forth;
for to bless is to acknowledge the unlimited good that
is embedded in the very texture of the universe and
awaiting each and all.
On passing people in the street, on the bus, in places
of work and play, bless them. The peace of your
blessing will accompany them on their way and the aura
of its gentle fragrance will be a light to their path.
On meeting and talking to people, bless them in their
health, their work, their joy, their relationships to
God, themselves, and others. Bless them in their
abundance, their finances...bless them in every
conceivable way, for such blessings not only sow seeds
of healing but one day will spring forth as flowers of
joy in the waste places of your own life.
As you walk, bless the city in which you live, its
government and teachers, its nurses and
streetsweepers, its children and bankers, its priests
and prostitutes. The minute anyone expresses the least
aggression or unkindness to you, respond with a
blessing: bless them totally, sincerely, joyfully, for
such blessings are a shield which protects them from
the ignorance of their misdeed, and deflects the arrow
that was aimed at you.
To bless means to wish, unconditionally, total,
unrestricted good for others and events from the
deepest wellspring in the innermost chamber of your
heart: it means to hallow, to hold in reverence, to
behold with utter awe that which is always a gift from
the Creator. He who is hallowed by your blessing is
set aside, consecrated, holy, whole. To bless is yet
to invoke divine care upon, to think or speak
gratefully for, to confer happiness upon - although we
ourselves are never the bestower, but simply the
joyfull witnesses of Life's abundance.
To bless all without discrimination of any sort is the
ultimate form of giving, because those you bless will
never kmow from whence came the sudden ray of sun that
burst through the clouds of their skies, and you will
rarely be a witness to the sunlight in their lives.
When something goes completely askew in your day, some
unexpected event knocks down your plans and you too
also, burst into blessing: for life is teaching you a
lesson, and the very event you believe to be unwanted,
you yourself called forth, so as to learn the lesson
you might balk against were you not to bless it.
Trials are blessings in disguise, and hosts of angels
follow in their path.
To bless is to acknowledge the omnipresent, universal
beauty hidden to material eyes; it is to activate that
law of attraction which, from the furthest reaches of
the universe, will bring into your life exactly what
you need to experience and enjoy.
When you pass a prison, mentally bless its inmates in
their innocence and freedom, their gentleness, pure
essence and unconditional forgiveness; for one can
only be prisoner of one's self-image, and a free man
can walk unshackled in the courtyard of a jail, just
as citizens of countries where freedom reigns can be
prisoners when fear lurks in their thoughts.
When you pass a hospital, bless its patients in their
present wholeness, for even in their suffering, this
wholeness awaits in them to be discovered. When your
eyes behold a man in tears, or seemingly broken by
life, bless him in his vitality and joy: for the
material senses present but the inverted image of the
ultimate splendor and perfection which only the inner
eye beholds.
It is impossible to bless and to judge at the same
time. So hold constantly as a deep, hallowed, intoned
thought that desire to bless, for truly then shall you
become a peacemaker, and one day you shall,
everywhere, behold the very face of God.
Pierre Pradervand
Vivre Autrement
