On this marked day of renewal for life, for love, for all sentient beings on this Earth, I offer this prayer. As the colors flare and the warmth remembers to come, as we move into new seasons raising our eyes to the sun, I offer this prayer. As buds open and new growth rises defying gravity, so do we. As humans we incubate, isolate and percolate; we push past fears, live day by day learning to love better through struggle, pursuing truth, searching for authenticity and alignment. We stall and start again. We remember to turn toward the light looping our way to understanding. We survive leaning on each other, blessed by the wetness of our tears. We thrive on the warmth of the sun as if it were the love we so desperately seek. We are together in this dance called life.
O Endless Creator, Force of Life, Seat of the Unconscious, Dharma, Atman, Ra, Qalb (Kalb), Dear Center of our Love, Christlight, Yaweh, Allah, Mawu, Mother of the Universe...
Let us, when swimming with the stream, become the stream. Let us, when moving with the music, become the music.
Let us, when rocking the wounded, become the suffering.
Let us live deep enough till there is only one direction. and slow enough till there is only the beginning of time. and loud enough in our hearts till there is no need to speak.
Let us live for the grace beneath all we want, let us see it in everything and everyone, till we admit to the mystery that when I look deep enough into you, I find me, and when you dare to hear my fear in the recess of your heart, you recognize it as your secret which you thought no one else knew.
O let us embrace that unexpected moment of unity as the atom of God. Let us have the courage to hold each other when we break and worship what unfolds.
O nameless spirit that is not done with us, let us love without a net beyond the fear of death until the speck of peace we guard so well becomes the world.
Participants’ Reflections:
That was such a beautiful prayer. Thank you so much. I want to think about it all day. There are so many lines. I love the one about let us live for the grace beneath all we want. Today is my 31st birthday in the 12-step program. 21 years ago, a friend of mine walked into my office and admitted he had a drinking problem. I told him it was my 10th birthday in the program, let’s go to a meeting. We wound up having our birthdays exactly 10 years apart. Every year, he calls me on our birthday and reminds me. He calls me his Eskimo because I brought him in from the cold. I am going to keep this prayer in my heart all day today. It’s a great way to celebrate my birthday.
I am grateful for the people who write these inspirational pieces because they are fodder for the heart. I appreciate it.
The part you wrote is beautiful. I liked the line about blessed by the tears. For most of my life, I didn’t cry very much. I’ve been crying more, thanks to this group and others. It is blessed. You said it’s good to let out tears, it makes more room. And I feel like others are crying with me because our hearts are all connected at the same time. I’ve been thinking about something. Yesterday, I mentioned looking for clothes and feeling guilty for doing it. I’ve been so careful since the pandemic started. If another primary caregiver went to the store, would they feel entitled to? Is it me because my go-to is to blame myself and feel guilty, or would everyone feel this way? Am I rationalizing saying other people wouldn’t feel guilty so I shouldn’t, or am I being too hard on myself?
I observe you are changing a pattern. The pattern has been blaming yourself because you haven’t had any other way of dealing with it. You are learning to deal with it and learning to cope better. It’s an old pattern that rises up and it is okay that it rises because that reinforces how you want to change it. You are doing a good job in that process.
It is good I am questioning it. I want others to say I’ve been clothes shopping too and they don’t feel guilty.
I have guilt about doing things based on a physical need. That I really want this and I’m going to go do it. I have this dry cough today, thinking I shouldn’t have taken that walk. We do it to ourselves. We all do. When the default is to keep doing it in a repeating loop, that’s the loop that needs to be interrupted, and we can change the behavior. It’s easy to get caught in it. I think it’s why I said we continue the loop of our living because we fall off and come back, fall off and come back. It’s part of living.
Thank you. I know that during this time…over Christmas, I went to another state to visit my son. And I worried, should I go? Should I not? One of the best things that someone said to me is there is risk everywhere. Just take care of yourself. Either I’m going to do things and take precautions or I’m not. I choose to. It’s true, there are risks everywhere. I talked to my cousin, a priest, this week. He said he had guilt too. We all have it, it shows up, and we can choose to look at it and respond differently. I suggested that he be kind to himself, that he’s doing the best he could.
Essentially, when you took that trip, you were taking care of a personal need. Someone could say that’s a selfish need, but it’s not. You were taking care of a need, as others are. We have the right to take care of ourselves, to clothe ourselves. We have wisdom.
Thank you. Thank you for your honesty, for speaking up through the pain. Speaking out loud our patterns that we struggle with, it takes courage to do that; it takes courage to share something that is from our insides and is easier to keep it hidden. But giving it air disperses the hold that it has on us. It is so important. On this day that is termed Easter, it’s about renewal. I honor you and I honor myself. I hope you all have a gentle day and take a moment to notice the colors and the buds, stay present with your breath. One step at a time, we get through it. Thank you so much.