At The End Of The Year


(Picture found here)
   The particular mind of the ocean
   Filling the coastline's longing
   With such brief harvest
   Of elegant, vanishing waves
   Is like the mind of time
   Opening us shapes of days.

   As this year draws to its end,
   We give thanks for the gifts it brought
   And how they became inlaid within
   Where neither time nor tide can touch them.

   The days when the veil lifted
   And the soul could see delight;
   When a quiver caressed the heart
   In the sheer exuberance of being here.

   Surprises that came awake
   In forgotten corners of old fields
   Where expectation seemed to have quenched.

   The slow, brooding times
   When all was awkward
   And the wave in the mind
   Pierced every sore with salt.

   The darkened days that stopped
   The confidence of the dawn.

   Days when beloved faces shone brighter
   With light from beyond themselves;
   And from the granite of some secret sorrow
   A stream of buried tears loosened.

   We bless this year for all we learned,
   For all we loved and lost
   And for the quiet way it brought us
   Nearer to our invisible destination.

   ~John O’Donohue
 

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