A few weeks ago, the Living Earth Center Board met virtually for our planned Annual Board Retreat. As is tradition, before any meeting, workshop, or gathering we begin with a "grounding" moment to help everyone get in the same emotional, spiritual, and energetic headspace. One of our Board Members, Sr. Anna Marie Reha, lead the reflection beginning with the below poem followed by asking each one of us where our hearts are at with everything going on around us. For some, this has been a time of discomfort and sadness, others a time of loneliness, some a deeply needed reset and even others a time hope. We hope that this reflection, provides you with some sense of grounding in such uneven, uncertain and constantly changing times. From the Living Earth Center we offer this Blessing to you and yours.

A Blessing for Traveling in the Dark

By Jan Richardson

Go slow
if you can.
Slower.
More slowly still.
Friendly dark
or fearsome,
this is no place
to break your neck
by rushing,
by running,
by crashing into
what you cannot see.

Then again,
it is true:
different darks
have different tasks,
and if you
have arrived here unawares,
if you have come
in peril
or in pain,
this might be no place
you should dawdle.

I do not know
what these shadows
ask of you,
what they might hold
that means you good
or ill.
It is not for me
to reckon
whether you should linger
or you should leave.

But this is what
I can ask for you:

That in the darkness
there be a blessing.
That in the shadows
there be a welcome.
That in the night
you be encompassed
by the Love that knows
your name.

© Jan Richardson, janrichardson.com