Image: What We Get to Keep
© Jan Richardson
From time to time I find myself wondering—Amid all the losses and letting go that life requires of us, is there anything we get to keep? Is there anything that returns to us, not in the same form by which we once knew it, but in a way that reminds us that through all the changes and impermanence, there is something that endures, that has the capacity to stay with us? Something that comes as the opposite of loss, or as its antidote; something that repairs a seam of our heart with its unexpected return.
If you wonder this, too, this is a blessing for you.
Sometimes What Goes from Us
Perhaps it will come
as the lightest thing
imaginable,
a gentleness
you had thought
impossible
nesting in the hollow
of your hand—
the blessed
gift of it
nothing you would
have dreamed
but for how it now
appears,
come to tell you
sometimes
what goes from us,
remains;
sometimes
what flies from us,
returns.
—Jan Richardson
from How the Stars Get in Your Bones: A Book of Blessings
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Using Jan’s words
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August 7, 2026 at 12:50 PM |
I love this poem, Jan. It is one of my very favorites.
August 7, 2026 at 2:55 PM |
My husband passed three years ago. Since then, I have had quite a few instances where dragonflies appear and sometimes follow my car for miles. I never noticed them prior to his death. Now I find them fascinating and a sign of hope that Joe is in the arms of his Lord. I’d heard it said that dragonflies have two sets of wings – the extra set is for angels to travel on. Dragonflies can symbolize balance, adaptability, and deep transformation. I just know I find them comforting and a reminder that God is in control and that we are all loved.