Keep what is worth keeping...

Ceremonial Blessing

“Keep what is worth keeping and with the breath of kindness, blow the rest away.”
Dinah M. Craik

I once had a therapist named Geri, who was kind of a Buddha-woman. I saw her once a week when I was going through a particularly rough break-up. One day, I asked her, “How do you do this all day? How can you sit here hour after hour and listen to people cry and curse and carry-on, and not be dragged down by it.” She gave me that knowing Buddha-smile, and told me that at the end of the day she walked over to the window, opened it and just swept it all away. She demonstrated by sweeping her hands down the front of her body and out the window. “Then,” she said “I get in my car and drive home.”

Some Native Americans use smudging to cleansing away what is not wanted, and for blessing what is wanted. They burn sage and let the smoke purify. I grew up in a high Episcopal church, where incense was burned and wafted through the sanctuary during the processional to designate sacred space, sacred time. And, I once attended the Jewish ceremony for placing a mezuzah at a friend's front door to bless and protect all who entered.

We have all sorts of ways of sweeping away what is not worth keeping, and of blessing what is. We sometimes forget that our homes are sacred space—a place of sanctuary worthy of ceremonial blessing. And not only our homes, but also our bodies and minds. We burden ourselves with too much emotional baggage; with painful reactions to what is past, to the troubles of others, and anxiety about the future. Today, find a way to honor the sacred, to keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.

In the Spirit,
Jane