Earth Beatitudes
At the gas station and grocery store and to those on my mind, I find myself silently sending blessings to people. I find myself speaking blessings aloud to plants and animals that I encounter. Throughout the day, I find myself being a dispatch for administering blessings upon people, places and things and the word beatitude swims into my consciousness from time to time. I even dreamed of this word recently.
Beatitude is a beauty-filled word that calls goodness into action. It is a supreme blessing. It is seeing and valuing someone/something for who they truly are and then blessing them. Beatitudes emit an energy that is sincerely needed in our world, and they can be given out by anyone leading with love.
Most people associate beatitudes with the well known Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus gives a series of blessings to the kind and underprivileged sector of the population. 1
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”
“Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
“Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be filled.”
etc….
But the concept and the word itself is a living noun, and I wonder why it became frozen in time. All of us are capable of giving and receiving great blessings.
Did you know that the term Beat Generation coined by Alan Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac and others was inspired by beatitude?
Kerouac wrote, “Beat doesn’t mean tired, or bushed, so much as it means beato, the Italian for beatific: to be in a state of beatitude, like Saint Francis, trying to love all life, trying to be utterly sincere with everyone, practicing endurance, kindness, cultivating joy of heart.”
As an offspring of the Beat Generation, I feel it’s my duty to keep sincerity, resiliency and compassion alive with my expansive green heart. I know so many of us feel this way. I put this beatitude attitude into practice by keeping a daily journal of gratitudes, beauty and prayers, jotting down phrases that then call forth a blessed feeling. I practice having faith in these beatitudes. I practice ‘live simply so that others can simply live,’2 which feels like an integral step before blessing anything.
Beatitudes are blessings given from the highest, most clear sighted parts of ourselves. We can offer them to anyone or anything- you do not have to be Jesus. When I think upon the elements and the diversity of life on this planet, some beatitudes arise out of me, and I affectionately call them the Earth Beatitudes.
To read them, follow on my Earth Devotions page
