Modern Blessings - "May the waters flow unblocked in the drain pipes of your house!"

"May the waters flow unblocked in the drain pipes of your house!"

I have always been affected by hearing blessings. As a child, when I heard them from adults, at first I used to think that they really had magical powers to say something so nice and make it come true. Then I used to often get a bit frustrated that they never said the things I really wanted to happen and wished for. It seemed that I could never get them to say blessings that I really wanted to hear. In my teens, I grew quite cynical, rebellious and was quite gruffly dismissive of them.

Now, I have a variety of feelings about them. Even if I feel they will not come true literally, I can clearly see the loving feeling and spirit they convey. I like the feelings they evoke in the giver, receiver and even the listener. I love that old culture of saying blessings out aloud. I find the old classic blessings very charming. Take for example the following samples:

 "May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be ever at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face and the rain fall softly on your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the hollow of his hand."
- Irish Blessings in the Lord's Prayer

There are blessing on the following lines for newly married couples in the Indian culture.

"May you two live together for a hundred years, have a thousand sons"

"May you bathe in milk, bloom and fruit"


 You can get definitely get the spirit, even if you know you don't literally want the road to rise up to meet you - which would indicate a massive devastating earthquake, or have a thousand sons within a hundred years, even if it is practical, as a means of blessing a newly married couple while asking them to commit exclusively to each other. Neither is bathing in milk regularly recommended if there is not enough water.

No, not all the old blessings are staid and serious, Some are very funny, honest and still applicable.

For example:

“May those who love us, love us; and those who don't love us, may God turn their hearts; and if He doesn't turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles so we'll know them by their limping.”
-  Irish Blessings quotes

As a means of reconciling my love of blessings and practicality in real life, I am starting a new series of modern and more practical blessings, that, if they literally come true, we would all be happy. You can see the first of these, in the title of this article. It was inspired by my feelings after having the plumber fix a slow-running and backed up shower drain in my house after a while, removing the tree roots that had grown into the pipes.

I shall try to add one every day or week. Please feel free to contribute some of your own with clear statement of copyright whenever possible in the comments section. Please keep them rated from G to PG. No MA or X rated ones please... This thread will degenerate quickly if they are allowed. Try some nice, true blessings that you could say out loud in mixed company with children present.

I will keep adding on to this same post regularly. Let us see how many we blessings we can think of.

Here are a few more I will start us all off with:

"May the interest rate on your credit card be low"

"May the car be on sale when you go shopping for one"
 

Copyright  (c) Kannan Narayanamurthy 2016
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