Casey Edwards · Voice With a Purpose
Open the two-page illustrated blessing · Free PDF
The Blessing
May you be met gently
in the moment you turn to tell them something
and remember.
May there be somewhere for the story to go:
a friend who will hear it,
a page that will keep it,
a few words spoken into the kitchen
while the kettle comes to a boil.
May you be allowed to miss the ordinary things.
The way they answered the phone.
The question they always asked.
Their particular opinion about the weather.
Love knew them in those details.
If remembering brings laughter,
may you have the whole laugh.
If it brings tears halfway through,
may no one ask you to choose
which feeling belongs.
May there be room for a complicated memory, too.
For tenderness beside anger,
for something left unfinished,
for the conversation you cannot have.
You do not have to make the story simpler
to deserve company in your grief.
On a day when you cannot bear the photograph,
may you turn it over without guilt.
On a day when you want to say their name,
may someone stay long enough
to hear what follows.
May the world offer you small kindnesses:
something warm to eat,
a message that asks for no reply,
a hand with the ordinary work
of getting through an afternoon.
And when something lovely catches your attention,
may you be free to linger.
There can be a place for it beside the missing.
You do not have to put love down
to let the sunlight reach you.
Take This With You
There is room in this day for what I miss.