As the year begins its slow ascent toward spring, I welcome March—with its release from the bitter cold and a promise of coming crocuses just peeping up from ground level. This time of year always brings with it a sharper realization of how our lives are transformed by God’s cycle of nature and how the blessings of each season drop down like dew on souls that have been tossed and torn by life’s harsh winds.

I was thinking about this phenomenon just the other day as I was leaving the art museum. As I exited the big front door and made my way down the gray granite steps, what I saw (cars and faces, bikes and runners, vendors and a cobalt blue sky) was transformed from everyday ordinariness into an impressionistic painting. It was like I was still in the museum! What a benediction, I thought.

A similar phenomenon happens to me when I read Irish blessings (something I do often, and particularly in the month when we celebrate the feast of Saint Patrick). Somehow, Irish blessings are perfect for marking the seasons of life—not just the big moments but the smaller, “ordinary” ones as well: milking the cow, fishing, cooking, raising your glass in a friendly toast, going to bed and rising in the morning—all the everyday experiences of the folks who inhabit Ireland’s green fields and hills, homes and pubs.

Irish blessings often have humor—an ingredient that can help a person go a long way, especially on a sad, rainy day. Their whimsy and playfulness remind us that, as Christians, we are invited to experience the joy of living with Christ and the plentiful redemption that is given freely to all of us and in every season.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton had the wonderful gift of retaining a childlike attitude toward life. He once said, “The true object of all human life is play.” Irish blessings are part of that wondrous tradition of childlike play. They help us see life from another perspective. They give us “second thoughts”—Christ thoughts—that are woven together like the threads in an Irish sweater. If an Irish blessing helps you see your life united with Christ in the same way you see blue and gold united in the woven wool of an Irish sweater, you’re experiencing the unique benediction of an Irish blessing. So smile—even if your eyes aren’t Irish!