Musings

Give Us This Day: A Prayer

 

Dear One:

 

Sunrise 

is the brightness gilding your temple,

ocean fog is the congealed vapor

of your prayerful breath.

 

Noontime

announces your supremacy

over the sweltering earth. 

In the labyrinth of the forest we lose our way

and find yours.

In the vast openness of the desert

our human pride withers,

desiccates,

in the hot wind of your Spirit.

 

Struggling up the mountainside,

every step reminds us

of the gravity

by which you bind us

into your creation. 

 

Into the wilderness

which you have created within our souls,

we now enter

in reverent silence,

seeking and finding you here,

in this place beyond our conscious knowing,

that realm

beyond the ego's control. 

 

Into this wilderness

we now sojourn,

ready and willing to face the demons and angels,

the glorious sunsets

and the slithering snakes,

that may await us. 

 

Give us this day the bread we need for food,

as well as the bread we need for our souls

--

joy, pain, loss, gain, insight, creativity, compassion, action, contemplation.

 

Open us

to receive your limitless acceptance of us,

just as we are

with all our failings and foibles,

 

and open us

likewise

to a forgiving acceptance

of the people who hurt us. 

 

Lead us to temptation

so we can face it,

but lead us not into its clutches.

 

Deliver us to evil

so that we can name it

and confront it,

but then deliver us from its grasp. 

 

All around us

and within us

is the wildness and wonder

of your kingdom,

your power,

and your glory, forever. 

Amen!

 

Psalm 23: The Marin County Version

God  is my life-coach. I have it  made. I kick back in her back-yard lounge chair, or relax in her hot tub during our sessions.  With her guidance, everything goes smoothly. She restores my self-esteem. She tells me the right way to handle things, so it's no wonder that I recommend her to other clients.  Even though my career is on the rocks, my family is mad at me, I can't make my mortgage, and I've got a dangerously high cholesterol level, I am not sweating any of it.  She's always there for me; her advice, her connections, they comfort me. She's calling a conference to work things out with the people who are breathing down my neck.  Not only that, during our counseling sessions, she gives me a cranial massage with aromatherapy oil, while making sure I always have a full glass of mineral water.  Because of her, goodness and mercy follow me, so I'm extending her contract with me indefinitely.