Write a Prayer-a-Day Project

May today be the day when we relax into living.  Anxiety runs high for many reasons, and yet we are here, we live on.  We wake in the morning the same person as the day before, and yet wholly different.  Each day holds the opportunity for re-birth and re-creation.  Let this knowledge bring us comfort; let it calm us, and assure us that what we need to do more than anything else, our first priority is to simply live.  To organically receive all the impulses and stimuli, and to filter them not with judgement but with love.  Love the world – love ourselves.  The rest will take care of itself.  For relaxation we give thanks.  Blessed Be, and Amen.

We have demons in our lives, manifestations of our own perceived faults, or guilt for our shortcomings.  We speak of battling our demons, as if they are enemies.  If war has taught us anything it is this: vanquishing one’s enemies does not remove the ‘enemy’ moniker: it in fact ingrains the enmity deeper.  When one makes peace with an enemy, they become at least an ally, and at best a friend.  Let us not do battle with our demons – let us own our deeds and our foibles, and look for ways to turn them into our most significant character strengths.  Blessed are the Peace-makers, and for them (us) we give thanks.  Blessed Be, and Amen.

May we hold each other and ourselves in loving care and compassion.  May we remember that we are fragile and strong, tender and hard, beautiful and again beautiful.  May we notice that these same Truths about ourselves also hold true for our natural environment, and may that cause us to realize that it is All One and the Same.  Therein lies God, and today is Sacred: may we treat it as such.  For Truth we give thanks.  Blessed Be, and Amen.

We are worthy of love; we are worthy in our loving.  We are inherently equal in our capacity to love, but there is disparity in our environmental circumstances that may mask or appear to diminish this capacity.  Justice is loving through barriers and beyond boundaries.  Compassion is loving the ‘unlovable.’  Peace is the abundance of love for all.  We are worthy of love, and we are worthy in our loving; therefore Justice, Compassion, and Peace are possible.  For this we give immeasurable thanks.  Blessed Be, and Amen.

Today we pray for patience and perseverance.  We have many outside forces competing for our energy and our industry, many impulses to distract our attention.  Much as we might want to ignore them, often we simply can not.  May this practice give us the tools to not be brought down by the demands of a world living at breakneck speed, but rather may our calmness allow us to navigate the tempest, and stand as testimony to the strength of living a grounded life.  May we ever be mindful of that which is truly important, and find truth’s manifestation in the most trivial of tasks.  We shall then have lived into our fullness.  For patience we give thanks.  Blessed Be, and Amen.

In this season of our lives, let us carve out our vision of where we are, of where we have been, and of where we aspire to go.  Let us gently mark this time and place, for others to follow.  Let us seek the signs of those who have gone before, gently guiding and encouraging us onward.  May we reflect in this moment, and envision the next.  As the seasons change, so do we, in an endless cycle of awakening, ever brighter, ever hopeful, ever grateful.  We are thankful for this time and place.  Blessed Be, and Amen.

A prayer of Welcome and Acceptance: may we see each other for who we really are – frail, vulnerable, uncertain, and human.  May we see each other for who we really are – strong, confident, capable, and human.  May we see each other for who we really are – cruel, selfish, thoughtless, and human.  May we see each other for who we really are – kind, generous, loving, and human.  May we own the many facets of humanity within ourselves, and may we recognize the same attributes in all we meet.  Thus we will be together, and the world will be a better place.  For welcoming smiles we give thanks.  Blessed Be, and Amen.

Today let us remember that the only things we’ll create of lasting value in this life are our relationships.  How we treat one another is the final measure of the depth of our spirituality.  Our inherent nature will cause us to be unkind from time to time, cause us to be selfish or cruel.  We will not be judged for that.  Our judgement, meted out by those who know us, will be based on how we respond to our own worst behavior.  Let us tend to our relationships, close to home and beyond.  Let us be especially mindful of those who challenge our better nature, for therein lies the true test.  For kindness unto redemption we give thanks.  Blessed Be, and Amen.

May we find creativity in problem solving today.  The notion that something is a ‘problem’ may simply be misplaced perspective.  The mind and spirit we bring to our daily lives directly informs how we navigate and negotiate them.  While it may be trite to say a problem is merely an opportunity in disguise, it is fair to say that if we view the world with a positive attitude, the magnitude of the challenge decreases.  May we wear our skins of positivity today and everyday.  For fresh perspective we give thanks.  Blessed Be, and Amen.

Recipe: begin with a stock of awareness and presence.  Add ample love, trust, and curiosity.  Bring to a rapid boil.  Gently stir in compassion.  Add generosity and forgiveness.  Fold in playfulness and humor.  Spice with variety.  Bake infinitely and glaze with grace.  Serve immediately with gratitude – will feed All.  Thanks for the cake!  Blessed Be, and Amen.