Prayer

Prayer has not come easily to me.  It wasn’t until my twenties that I gave it a good go, and, thirty years later, I am beginning to feel a resonance, a “prayer life”.  I slowly came to realize that I do not have to know, specifically, who or what I am praying to.  In fact, that may limit the flow of energy, healing or wisdom I seek;  because it would then be a conversation with my definitions, not an invocation of that which encompasses more than me. 

Prayer is an attitude and an affirmation far more than a contract or directive.  It is more a recognition than submission, though there is some of both.  It is more an opening than a finding, though there is, again, some of both.  Whatever image or name I use, I am focusing my being on a presence of harmony and well-being, a wisdom that resonates with gratitude, love, unity and truth.  The answer comes not in our asking, but in our intention to live within gratitude, love, unity and truth.  We are helped when we are willing to be transformed, attuned to the resonance of cosmic harmony.  How could we possibly name that essence?

One of my favorite readings, by Joy Harjo  (Eagle Poem) begins: “To pray you open your whole self to sky, to earth,  to sun, to moon, to one whole voice that is you… and know that there is more that you can’t see, can’t  hear,  can’t know except in moments steadily growing and in languages that aren’t always sound but other circles of motion...”

When I pray, I suspend my sense of separateness and offer union with energies that transcend my ego distortions, wisdoms that do not honor my false and fear-based perceptions.  When I pray I allow my potential for love and gratitude, for honoring truth and living with integrity.  And then I let the cosmos work out the details.