For a New
Father
As the shimmer of dawn
transforms the night
Into a blush of color futured with delight,
The eyes of your new child awaken in you
A brightness that surprises your life.
Into a blush of color futured with delight,
The eyes of your new child awaken in you
A brightness that surprises your life.
Since the first stir of its
secret becoming,
The echo of your child has lived inside you,
Strengthening through all its night of forming
Into a sure pulse of fostering music.
The echo of your child has lived inside you,
Strengthening through all its night of forming
Into a sure pulse of fostering music.
How quietly and gently that
embryo-echo
Can womb in the bone of a man
And foster across the distance to the mother
A shadow-shelter around this fragile voyage.
Can womb in the bone of a man
And foster across the distance to the mother
A shadow-shelter around this fragile voyage.
Now as you behold your
infant, you know
That this child has come from you and to you;
You feel the full force of a father' desire
To protect and shelter.
That this child has come from you and to you;
You feel the full force of a father' desire
To protect and shelter.
Perhaps for the first
time
There awakens in you
A sense of your own mortality.
There awakens in you
A sense of your own mortality.
May your heart rest in the
grace of the gift
And you sense how you have been called
Inside the dream of this new destiny.
And you sense how you have been called
Inside the dream of this new destiny.
May you be gentle and
loving,
Clear and sure.
Clear and sure.
May you trust in the unseen
providence
That has chosen you all to be a family.
That has chosen you all to be a family.
May you stand sure on your
ground
And know that every grace you need
Will unfold before you
Like all the mornings of your life.
And know that every grace you need
Will unfold before you
Like all the mornings of your life.
~ John O'Donohue
~
(To Bless the Space Between
Us)
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