Image: End and Beginning © Jan Richardson
I was in Ireland when the news came that in Orlando, where I make my home, 49 people had been killed in an attack at Pulse nightclub. It has been such a strange sorrow, returning home to a city so different than the one I left. And yet, watching the care and tenderness with which people have been turning toward each other in the wake of staggering violence, the city seems in many ways even more itself, in that beautiful and terrible way that grief has of bringing to the surface what is deepest in us.
From Ireland, after hearing the news, I shared the “Blessing in a Time of Violence” that I wrote last fall, and I grieved how timely the blessing is, again and again. It has been wonderful and awful to see how that blessing continues to travel, and to hear from folks who, searching for words on the heels of yet another fresh horror in the world, are finding the blessing for the first time.
It is a new week. I enter it with trepidation, wondering what news the coming days might hold. I enter it with wild and stubborn hope, praying we will, in the best possible ways, become even more ourselves.
I am entering the week, too, with another blessing on my mind. This is one that I wrote for my blog The Advent Door a couple of years ago; I included it in my new book, Circle of Grace. I want to share the blessing with you here. In every place where a world is ending, may we turn toward one another with wild and stubborn hope.
Blessing When the World Is Ending
Look, the world
is always ending
somewhere.
Somewhere
the sun has come
crashing down.
Somewhere
it has gone
completely dark.
Somewhere
it has ended
with the gun,
the knife,
the fist.
Somewhere
it has ended
with the slammed door,
the shattered hope.
Somewhere
it has ended
with the utter quiet
that follows the news
from the phone,
the television,
the hospital room.
Somewhere
it has ended
with a tenderness
that will break
your heart.
But, listen,
this blessing means
to be anything
but morose.
It has not come
to cause despair.
It is simply here
because there is nothing
a blessing
is better suited for
than an ending,
nothing that cries out more
for a blessing
than when a world
is falling apart.
This blessing
will not fix you,
will not mend you,
will not give you
false comfort;
it will not talk to you
about one door opening
when another one closes.
It will simply
sit itself beside you
among the shards
and gently turn your face
toward the direction
from which the light
will come,
gathering itself
about you
as the world begins
again.
—Jan Richardson
from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons
Using Jan’s artwork…
To use the image “End and Beginning,” please visit this page at janrichardsonimages.com. (This is also available as an art print. After clicking over to the image’s page on the Jan Richardson Images site, just scroll down to the “Purchase as an Art Print” section.) Your use of janrichardsonimages.com helps make the ministry of The Painted Prayerbook possible. Thank you!
Using Jan’s words…
For worship services and related settings, you are welcome to use Jan’s blessings or other words from this blog without requesting permission. All that’s needed is to acknowledge the source. Please include this info in a credit line: “© Jan Richardson. janrichardson.com.” For other uses, visit Copyright Permissions.
July 18, 2016 at 11:03 AM |
Thank you Jan. I remember this blessing from the book but reading it again brings a sense of peace, just as a blessing should do.
July 18, 2016 at 10:26 PM |
Judy, thank you! So grateful. Deep peace to you.
July 18, 2016 at 11:43 AM |
Thank you. A well-timed blessing.
July 18, 2016 at 10:27 PM |
Thank you, Karen! Many blessings to you.
July 18, 2016 at 12:50 PM |
Dear Jan
Thank you so much for sending this wonderful blessing.
I went to see my spiritual director this morning and we spent the time talking about our very troubled world, and when I came home there was this blessing from you in my inbox.
Just what was needed. Wonderful timing.
With love and grateful thanks.
Anne
July 18, 2016 at 10:33 PM |
Anne, thank you so much! It’s lovely to hear from you, and I’m really grateful for your words. So good to hear the blessing turned up in your inbox at a good time! I love it when words show up in my life just when I need them.
Many blessings to you.
March 21, 2020 at 12:42 AM |
Jan, may I use this blessing in the abbreviated worship service I’m recording for my congregation this weekend? I’ll be posting it on our Facebook page and emailing it to them. Thanks
March 21, 2020 at 11:21 AM |
Thank you, Jeanne! I’m very pleased for you to use this blessing in the worship service you’re recording for your congregation. All that’s necessary is to include a credit. We have some brief info on this at my Permissions page in the “In worship” section. Sending much gratitude and many blessings as you minister in these days!
July 18, 2016 at 1:48 PM |
Thank you Jan for the beautiful reminder.
Barbara
July 19, 2016 at 4:48 PM |
Thank you, Barbara! Blessings to you.
July 18, 2016 at 2:50 PM |
I love this blessing so much. I wish all the people who need this so desperately were in a the state of mind to absorb it. Thank you, Jan.
July 19, 2016 at 4:48 PM |
Cynthia, thanks so much for your beautiful words. Deep peace to you.
July 18, 2016 at 5:13 PM |
. Beautiful, grounded poetry
July 19, 2016 at 4:49 PM |
Thank you, Molly! So grateful to you.
July 18, 2016 at 10:49 PM |
very touching and strangely reassuring…
July 19, 2016 at 4:49 PM |
Thanks so much, Annette!
July 18, 2016 at 11:53 PM |
Thank you for your beautiful work. I am an aspiring poet artist & your expression came at a time as I explore a graced world. You opened another portal to me and I’m grateful. Lynette Neil
July 19, 2016 at 4:51 PM |
Lynette, many thanks for your beautiful comment. I wish you many blessings on your journey as a poet artist! May you find all the doorways you need.
July 19, 2016 at 7:34 AM |
I love all your writings, thank you.
July 19, 2016 at 4:52 PM |
Thank you, Jill! So grateful for your words and for you. Blessings to you!
July 19, 2016 at 9:23 AM |
Thank you!
July 19, 2016 at 4:36 PM |
Thank you. That was a wonderful blessing in this very troubled world.
July 19, 2016 at 6:40 PM |
Thank you for this blessing, Jan
. Mine ended in June with the tenderness that broke my heart. After 11 years of being imprisoned by Alzheimers, my mother suddenly sparkled awake and told me goodbye. Four days later she joined Jesus and Daddy. It was a hard 11 years, but now there is sweet peace. I’m so sorry for those whose world has ended differently, with violence and hate. May they somehow know that light that will gather about them.
July 23, 2016 at 10:33 AM |
What a wonderful blessing – it will be helpful to our people who are feeling overwhelmed at all the grief and tragedy that seem to overwhelm us each day with each news report. Thank you,
Jim
July 23, 2016 at 5:41 PM |
That is a wonderful blessing. We all experience loss, and we all need to look toward the light. And I love the painting, too.
July 24, 2016 at 11:43 AM |
Jan, Thank you for sharing your gifts and your life in such a public way. As I was reading your blog this week, my 7 year old son snuggled up beside me and on seeing your painting said, “it’s like a painting within a painting.” An appropriate expression of end and beginning I think. Blessings!
July 25, 2016 at 4:49 AM |
I was familiar with this blessing from your book Circle of Grace, but what a God-incidence of timing rediscovering it in your post. It dovetailed so beautifully with a post I was writing that I included your words, (as you may have realised from the ping back) Properly credited and linked back to your sites for both book and blessing. ( you can view it here, if you wish to see it: https://afeatheronthebreathofgod.com/2016/07/24/leaning-into-darkness/)
Many many thanks once again, Jan.
October 22, 2016 at 4:35 PM |
Beautiful Blessing…. Thank you for sharing. First time visiting your website and blog…
October 27, 2018 at 2:41 PM |
Thank you for sharing your extraordinary and very moving poem.
October 27, 2018 at 5:44 PM |
Thanks so much, Maude! Many blessings to you.
November 19, 2018 at 4:57 AM |
Fr Mathi referred and read from the “Circle of Grace” and “Landscape of Faith” in his homily on the 18th Nov 2018, to give further illustration of the apocalyptic imagery.