May The Seventh

TODAY is International Day of Prayer.
Somewhere in the universe there was a beginning of this Earth we rest upon. Someday in the universe there will be an end.
We may never see it. Our children may never see it. Our grandchildren may never see it.
On and on the world may roll through the heavens, without end in our lifetime.
This prayer I speak repeats the words this blog title is based on: Bless What There Is.
Bless the people we love, bless the hands that work to make our lives better, bless those who labor day and night to ensure we are safe. - Blessed Be.

And this: I THINK CONTINUALLY OF THOSE WHO WERE TRULY GREAT

I think continually of those who were truly great
Who, from the womb, remembered the soul's history
Through corridors of light where the hours are suns,
Endless and singing. Whose lovely ambition
Was that their lips, still touched with fire,
Should tell of the spirit clothed from head to foot in song.
And who hoarded from the spring branches
The desires falling across their bodies like blossoms.

What is precious is never to forget
The delight of the blood drawn from ageless springs
Breaking through rocks in worlds before our earth;
Never to deny its pleasure in the simple morning light,
Nor its grave evening demand for love;
Never to allow gradually the traffic to smother
With noise and fog the flowering of the spirit.

Near the snow, near the sun, in the highest fields
See how these names are feted by the waving grass,
And by the streamers of white cloud,
And whispers of wind in the listening sky;
The names of those who in their lives fought for life,
Who wore at their hearts the fire's center.
Born of the sun they traveled a short while towards the sun,
And left the vivid air signed with their honour.

-- STEPHEN SPENDER

A young girl playing ball in Hyde Park on a spring day in London, United Kingdom. Taken February 1951 by photographer Cornell Capa.