Happy St Patrick’s Day!

This morning surfing on-line for an Irish wish and prayer to send to a few friends on St. Patrick’s day I found this one I liked most:

May love and laughter light your days…
And warm your heart and home…
May good and faithful friends be yours…
Wherever you may roam…
May peace and plenty bless your world…
With joy that long endures…
May all life’s passing seasons…
Bring the best to you and yours…

Those words stuck me as being exactly the wish I wanted to send to a few people .  After reading the prayer several times I began to drill down and focus on what some of the words actually meant.  Through doing that I came away with a more personally meaningful insight of what is expressed in those eight lines.

LOVE:  a profoundly tender affection for another person

LAUGHTER:  A mood of merriment or amusement.

WARM: feeling of kindness or vitality

HEART:  the center of emotion and feeling

HOME: retreat of safety or shelter

GOOD:  virtuous; righteous

FAITHFUL: allegiant; loyal

FRIEND: people attached through feeling

ROAM:  go, walk or travel

PEACE:  freedom from strife or dissension

WORLD:  your part of Earth

PLENTY: abundant supply without impairment

BLESS:  sanctify, bestow good; holy

JOY:  great happiness; delight

ENDURE: sustain without impairment

LIFE: human existence; animate existence

SEASON:  periods when conditions are best

BEST:  highest quality; most advantageous,

YOU:  total of who you are

YOURS:  what belongs to you.

Then taking those definitions I reworked the eight lines to say essentially the same thing in a different (albeit a little longer) manner.  I am grateful for the added relevance that flowed to me as I reshaped the words to how “Mr. Spock” might have expressed them.

A new interpretation of an old Traditional Irish Wish and Prayer
by James Browning
May a profoundly tender affection & mood of merriment light your days…
And bring a kindly feeling in your center of emotion & retreat of safety…
May virtuous & allegiant people attached through feeling be yours…
Wherever you may go, walk or travel…
May freedom from strife & an abundant supply sanctify your part of Earth
With great happiness that long sustains without impairment…
May all human experience in periods when conditions are best…
Bring the highest quality to the total of who you are & what belongs to you…