I just got back from my morning walk and feeling a sense of peace, a calm of thankfulness. It’s a beautiful Saturday morning with the sun cresting over the horizon laying claim to the shimmering light spreading across its water below, with little breeze, a peacefulness comes in to my heart. I’m thinking prayer is a good way to begin today. Any day for that matter if that is what you like to do or find comfort in it. So clasping my hands together, I sit in quiet.
Yesterday (or at least that is when I saw the message) our provincial government put out a thoughtful way to communicate to our sister province Nova Scotia, to give a personal offering of sympathy and condolences on-line to those who experienced the tragedy that befell them last weekend. It may not be a big gesture, and certainly not an answer, but it might bring a glimmer of hope in words offered during the midst of the chaos. I am not sure why people do what they do but it breaks my heart to know that individuals or groups of individuals, can make decisions that are hurtful, and even fatal, in their action which is beyond one’s comprehension. Why? Oh, why? Can you tell me that?
Life is precious. Absolutely, positively a gift. I say that a thousand times over that life is precious as my family and friends can attest to. But life is…precious, fragile, graced, beloved. Each time I watch or listen to stories on the news of suffering and tragedy in and around our world, the heart splinters a bit more. Reminding me of the gift and burden of knowing, knowing how life can be taking one path and in an instant, takes off toward one less travelled. You can see it daily right before your eyes. There are no answers, whatsoever, that can come to mind, calming the shaken heartache left behind in the wake of what befalls. Where does a person find that rock to stand on, and not this feeling of sand, shifting beneath one’s feet, trying to get a foothold of steadfastness?
So today I want to pray… for those in need… for the homeless, shut-ins and sick… for those who have lost a beloved one… for those who are struggling to make sense of the impact of the COVID-19… for the elderly and fragile…for those forgotten….for those who struggle with mental illness…for families and their children, helping them cope with ‘staying home’… for the front-line workers…for loss of jobs, lay offs…for victims of violence… for political, religious, economic leaders to bring clarity and hope in the turmoil…. for a life lived.
I can go on and on and on. So much, too much. (never too much) But I also pray for joy in the heart, a beacon of the glimpses of celebration to be thankful for what we have. Just to know you are not alone and being grateful for a glimmer of hope.
So I leave a few prayers from others that I found..certainly a different perspective. But praying nevertheless, prayers out of the mouths of babes (or really older babes). Like praying to “help me to relax with insignificant details, beginning tomorrow at 7:41:23 am EST.” Or like praying “give me patience, like right now!”Or praying for “Now I lay me down to sleep I pray the Lord my shape to keep…please no age spots, please no gray, and as for my belly, please take it away”. Or from a farmer “thou shall not love thy tractor more than the wife and children; as much, but not more”. Or “Dear God, thank You for a baby brother but what I really prayed for was a puppy.” Or “Dear God, I say your prayer every night, ‘lead us not into temptation and deliver us some e-mail” but I never got an e-mail from you.. Do you have my right address?” Or from a little boy praying “if you can’t make me a better boy, don’t worry about it. I’m having a real good time like I am.” And finally to end with the Lord’s Prayer from a three-year old “Our Father, who does art in heaven. Harold is His name. Amen”
Let us pray in a thank you. Thinking of all those in need at this time. Blessings.
Karenpondering 