Old Irish Blessing

May God give you… for every storm, a rainbow, for every tear, a smile, for every care, a promise, and a blessing in each trial.  For every problem life sends, a faithful friend to share, for every sigh, a sweet song, and an answer for each prayer.

–Anonymous Old Irish Blessing

Happy belated St. Patrick’s Day to all!  I hope everyone was able to enjoy some time of fun for the green holiday this past week.  I know that we are still in the midst of a pandemic and many parades and celebrations were cancelled, but the end is in sight! 

In honor of the holiday, I thought I would share the above old Irish blessing.  When I first read this blessing, my first thought was even the old blessings led us to finding gratitude.  It may not be an obvious, hit you over the head, reflection of gratitude, but by reading between the lines, we can certainly find that search for gratitude within the blessing.

I use the word “search”, because sometimes we do need to proactively find that gratitude.  The first line of the blessing wishes you a rainbow for every storm.  Let us first think about a literal storm.  When the storm blows through with its fierceness and grayness, we may hide inside or take other shelter. But if we stay inside that shelter, will we ever see that rainbow?  Nope, we have to get our buts out the door and look to find that rainbow.   I know, some of us may already have a head start and be running out to play in the rain and finding the gratitude in the strength of the storm. 

Compare that to metaphorical storms in your life. The metaphorical storms are a little harder to just run out in to play and find gratitude.  However, if you dwell in the turmoil that you are experiencing, will you ever find the rainbow?  Probably not.  It may not be easy, but we have to lift our minds and search for that happiness to bring us out of our turmoil.  We have to actively practice pointing out to ourselves what we are grateful for during the midst of our turmoil so that we can find that metaphorical rainbow.

The rest of the verses follow the same line of thought.  For every item that is perhaps causing you to struggle to find gratitude or happiness, the blessing wishes a positive response.  We have the power within us to find that smile, that blessing, that friend and that song.  We just have to start focusing on what we are grateful for in those instances rather than focusing on the troubling event.  Not that those events will not happen but focusing on our gratitude will help us get through the event to that rainbow, smile, song, and friendship.  Remember, we are improving our output to improve our input!

As a parting thought, I leave you with another Irish blessing. 

May your troubles be less
And your blessing be more.
And nothing but happiness
Come through your door.