a father’s blessing (haibun)

CARPE DIEM HAIKU KAI, Haibun, Haiku 1 Minute

New Year’s Eve was exciting when I was a child up to early teens. There were traditions, like being the first to say Happy New Year to your parents or calling them on the phone if they were out at a friend’s celebrating, I would dial all the numbers (on a rotary phone of course) and not release the last number until the stroke of midnight and beat my father to wish my mom Happy New Year.

But the real excitement (for me at that time) was beating my sister to reach my father so he could bless me for the New Year. I would kneel in front of him wherever he was in the house and he would make the sign of the cross over my head and then kiss me on my forehead.

We were only two in the family so it was not really a grand event. In my mom’s family there were seven children and they would all gather in the living room on New Year’s Day and GrandPapa would bless them as well as my grandmother.   It was sort of like a good omen for the new year. I suppose if you went to mass or church services and the minister or priest blessed you before you left it might feel the same but New Year’s was special for that reason for me.

children kneel in wait

in the name of the Father,

blessing a New Year

(c) Tournesol ’14

Carpe Diem Haik Kai

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Published by Tournesol

A little bit about moi: I am a mom, a nana, a sister, a woman, a friend, a human being…a youth counsellor, Family Life Educator. I have been working in the helping profession for over 25 years and volunteered in various capacities from youths to seniors. Tournesol is my nom de plume for haiku and other Japanese form poetry here at Tournesoldansunjardin https://cheryllynnroberts.wordpress.com I hope you enjoy reading through my daily waka. I also have another blog "Stop the Stigma" where I may stand on my soapbox now and then and hope it will become a place to drop in and share or comment on issues important to you. In that vein this could be a great way to learn from each other. http://stigmahursteveryone.wordpress.com

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31 thoughts on “a father’s blessing (haibun)”

      1. I was on line just for about half an hour … I’m back and now I’ve got about two days to catch up on and this morning my system was off line completely … sigh … I’m going to change country or at least town – I swear!

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    1. Wow!! imagine that!! I remember when were not allowed to touch the wafer or bite with our teeth…when things changed to touch it felt weird since for years they told us we were not worthy to touch it. What a great memory for you …I still find that astonishing!

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      1. It’s a very old-world Polish thing, I think. You should see their marriage certificate — it’s gorgeous, but also quite unusual in it’s symbolism and iconography.

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    2. We used to do something similar on Christmas Eve — we’d had the Oplatek blessed by the priest and then broke & shared it at the Wigilia.

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    1. I wish it would have continued in my family with my kids..their father felt he was not worthy to bless them but he did in his own loving way.

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      1. Interesting, that pervasive feeling of unworthiness folks have–took me until Mar 2011 to feel accepted and Beloved by God.

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      2. it took me a few years to accept to hold the host in my hand when they switched it around at communion…I was like the older people who had a harder time to switch over:)

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