A Postscript to V-Day

I was too busy last week to even feel the Valentine mood. Here are two beautiful pieces on longing for those of us for whom Valentine's day is "Single Awareness Day." 

 

BLESSING FOR LONGING
John O'Donohue

Blessed be the longing that brought you here
And quickens your soul with wonder.  

May you have the courage to listen to the voice of desire
That disturbs you when you have settled for something safe.

May you have the wisdom to enter generously into your own unease
To discover the new direction your longing wants you to take. 

May the forms of your belonging - in love, creativity, and friendship - 
Be equal to the grandeur and the call of your soul.

May the one you long for long for you. 

May your dreams gradually reveal the destination of your desire.

May a secret Providence guide your thought and nurture your feeling. 

May your mind inhabit your life with the sureness with which your body inhabits the world. 

May your heart never be haunted by ghost-structures of old damage.

May you come to accept your longing as divine urgency.

May you know the urgency with which God longs for you. 


GO TO THE LIMITS OF YOUR LONGING
Rainer Maria Rilke

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.

Flare up like a flame
and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.

Don’t let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.