A Blessings for Absence

May you know that absence is full of tender
 presence and that nothing is ever lost of forgotten.
May the absence in your life be full of eternal echo.
May you sense around you the secret Elsewhere
which holds the presences that have left your life
May you be generous in your embrace of loss
May the sore of your grief turn into a well of
seamless presence.
May your compassion reach out to the ones we
never hear from and may you have the courage to
speak out for the excluded ones.
May you become the gracious and passionate
subject of your own life.
May you not disrespect your mystery through brittle
words or false belonging.
May you be embraced by God in whom dawn and
twilight are one and may your longing inhabit its deepest dreams within the shelter of the Great belonging.

John O'Donohue