Benediction for Naropa's

Commencement Ceremony,

May, 2009

-- from Always Coming Home by Ursula K. LeGuin

Please bring strange things.

Please come bringing new things.

Let very old things come into your hands.

Let what you do not know come into your eyes.

Let desert sand harden your feet.

Let the arch of your feet be the mountains.

Let the paths of your fingertips be your maps

and the ways you go be the lines of your palms.

Let there be deep snow in your inbreathing

And your outbreath be the shining of ice.

May your mouth contain the shapes of strange words.

May you smell food cooking you have not eaten.

May the spring of a foreign river be your navel.

May your soul be at home where there are no houses.

Walk carefully, well-loved one,

walk fearlessly, well-loved one.

Return with us, return to us,

be always coming home.