Dealing with Adversity
Today is a blustery day. I’m going down the hill. I pass a man, coming up it. We nearly collide. His face is set, his hood is up. I’m going into the wind and the sleet bites my face. He’s going away from it and the force of it powers him up the hill. He has an advantage on me, even though he’s going upwards.
It reminds me of the Irish blessing: May the wind be always at your back…Not, I note, may there be no wind. Hardly likely in Ireland. Not may it be a calm day when you set out. No, may it power you onwards. May you find harmony with it.
When I get to the office, I open my laptop and the Irish blessing is the first thing I look up. Here it is in full:
May the road rise up 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.
The website that I find it on, Irish Central, writes that the prayer, originally spoken in ancient Irish, reflects the Irish connection to nature and to God. The sun is a symbol of God’s love, the rain of his provision. The wind, it says, refers to the wind of the Spirit. If that is the case, then the prayer is to go with, rather than resist, the Spirit of God. That’s not how we read it now. Modern interpretations are more about circumstances and whether they are for…
