When this was first published a letter arrived thanking me because it was used in a eulogy for a person who was difficult at best.  No words of gratitude for this life could be found by anyone who had not been deeply affected by this wounded soul.  That they found these words to give them a different perspective to view their experience with this person has given me a profound respect for the sacredness of language.  That words can pierce and lacerate and kill as any weapon must be held in mind.  It is with responsibility that we speak.  And use words as a blessing to heal.

        BLESS THE EXPERIENCE

I learned something today.  I learned to
‘bless the experience’.  For if the
experience has been a negative one, has
left me with a hurt so deep, has filled
me with anger, then I must bless it.

For in the blessing I remove its power
to hurt me again.  I leave it impotent, unable.

I’ve taken the wind out of its sails and
there it sits, blessed for the teaching,
but unable to wield power over me again.

If the experience is a positive one, I bless it.
In like manner, it will remain
powerful and upon recall, able to confer
its goodness time and again.  In my thinking
happily on it, I will automatically bless it again.

Life is a blessed experience, all of it.
Bless it generously and gratefully.  It
teaches us magnificently and impartially.
These are the magic words.

For in the unhappy experience we are taught
swiftly and surely and must bless the lesson.
In the happier one our pleasurable memory is our
reward.

In blessing all of it, we make our
truce with life and secure our place in it forever.