It’s my last day of teaching for the spring semester. Saying good-bye to students always chokes me up! What a journey we’ve been on together as we’ve explored their professional, personal, scholarly, and political voices!
At the end of each class, I traditionally ask permission to say the Irish Blessing over my students. I cry. Sometimes they cry. It’s such a beautiful moment of having an elder (me) speak words of life over the young (them). I wish we incorporated more blessing-speaking over people in our lives.
There’s something about the Irish blessing that moves me deeply in its beauty and symbolism. It reads like this:
May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face
the rains fall soft upon your fields,
and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.
May God bless you with these words today.