May The Road Rise Up to Beat You

My niece is getting married Friday, and I was very honored that she asked me to recite the well known Irish blessing that begins, “May the road rise up to meet you…” You know the one. Being half Irish, I take the Irish stuff seriously. The other half is Italian, and I believe that I’ve inherited all the best traits of both these famously cool headed and forgiving people.

She asked that I memorize it, and I figured this is a no-brainer, because that thing is only like two or three lines, right? Wrong. I opened her email and discovered it’s 16 lines long:

May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and the rains fall soft upon your fields.

May true be the hearts that love you;
May pure be the joys that surround you.
May you see your children’s children,
May the hand of a friend always be near.

May you know nothing but happiness, from this day forward.
May God be with you and bless you,
May He hold you in the palm of His hand.
And may Almighty God bless you, and all of us.

Uh, oh. I’m going to ruin the wedding.

6 thoughts on “May The Road Rise Up to Beat You

  1. .. you’re one of THEM.. please tell me you haven’t forced Zack into Step Dancing…

  2. I sort of like this:

    May those who love us, love us.
    And for those who don’t love us,
    May God turn their hearts.
    And if he can not turn their hearts,
    May he turn their ankles,
    So we may know them by their limping.

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