By Kevin O’Brien
At a recent Meeting for Worship, I shared a leading that was essentially a recitation of a Scottish blessing that I keep in my counseling office. It serves as a quiet reminder of the meaning and purpose of the work of personal and family transformation that people allow me to participate in when we work together.
The blessing is as follows:
Where there is light in the soul, there is beauty in the person
Where there is beaty in the person, there is harmony in the home
Where there is harmony in the home, there is honor in the nation
Where there is honor in the nation, there is peace in the world
So let it be
It has been surfacing often in the year since the election. As I find myself grasping for “hope” in the changes that I want to see in the nation and in the world, the Light coming through this blessing brings me back to solid ground. Real change is bottom up, and inside out.
As such, it affords me the lasting, active hope that comes from living in the purpose of creating as much room for the Light within to work through me as I possibly can.
Sweet Honey in the Rock has a wonderful version of this blessing that is put to song. They call it a Chinese proverb, so I’ll leave it to you to figure out if you want to thank the Scots or the Chinese for this blessing/proverb.