Write a Prayer-a-Day Project

Where is inspiration?  Is it found in the clouds and in the rain?  Is it found in our intimate conversations?  Is it found in time spent with friends?  Is it found in quite reflection?  Is it found in the eyes of children?  Is it found in the playful antics of our pets?  Is it found in the graceful movement of muscle and tissue?  Is it found in our art and our theology?  Is it found over there, under a rock?  Is it found here, inside the heart?

Oh, yes.  Surely it is found there.  For Inspiration we are thankful.  Blessed Be, and Amen.

May we come together today and bring the best of ourselves and the worst of ourselves.  May we join together in community.  May we find strength and solace in each other.  May we give unselfishly with our gifts.  May we seek truth and meaning.  May we not expect to find a single answer, but rather may our shared exploration be reward enough.  May we be honest with each other, and with ourselves.  May we come together today.  For Community we give thanks.  Blessed Be, and Amen.

Let us set aside this day for celebration and frivolity.  It is good to take life seriously; it is also good to not take it too seriously.  And even in our folly we may glean deeper meaning and purpose, by finding connection, and by experiencing pure joy.  So go forth today with the face of the clown.  Spread joy and happiness!  Act silly!  In so doing, we are fulfilling part of the cosmic promise – that we will experience as much as we possibly can in our brief visit.  Making a fool of oneself is a birthright: exercise it.  For silliness and the joy that comes with it we give thanks.  Blessed Be, and Amen.

May today be the day we learn to manage our expectations, particularly of ourselves.  May we find the strength to take necessary action, and the focus to stay on task.  May we find inspiration.  May we recall the joy of success.  May the blessings of our enterprise sustain us through uncertainty.  In spite of the struggle, we would have it no other way; let us learn the lessons that teaches us.  The question remains, how many times must we learn those lessons?  As many as it takes.  For constant study we give thanks.  Blessed Be, and Amen.

We evaluate ourselves and each other in a constant stream of judgement.  How or why this became useful is one of the great mysteries of time.  The ultimate victim in this cycle is our own self-esteem.  When you hold another up as a prime exemplar, it notches down our own understanding of ourselves.  May we find new modes of thinking, that include gratitude and aspiration without so much judgement and valuation.  We are all worthy.  And we all occasionally do not achieve our highest visions, but that simply means we have more living to do, and what a good thing that is.  For a clear conscience we give thanks.  Blessed Be, and Amen.

We cry out for help, because we are losing ourselves in despair.  This is not a sign of weakness; rather, it is a characteristic of strength.  Owning our anguish without shame empowers us to begin to change.  If pain is to be endured, as surely it is, then something must come of it.  May that something be new resolve.  May that something be found strength.  May that something be deeper love and longer compassion.  In a word, may that something be Hope.  We are thankful today and all our days.  Blessed Be, and Amen.

Time is everything, and time is nothing at all.  What we have is time, and our only real choices in life are how to spend it.  Will we spend it being productive, or will we instead fret at our lack of productivity?  Will we spend it isolating ourselves, or will we use it to build our community?  We spend much time seeking ways to save time, when perhaps we should be allocating our time to the task at hand, the accomplishment of which would grant us more time.  Let us not get hung up on time, but rather let us focus on Be-ing, in all its manifestations.  We will find the time, and for this we are thankful.  Blessed Be, and Amen.

A prayer of Hope: Life is a Promise.  It is the promise of opportunity, the promise of joy, the promise of suffering, and the promise of redemption.  In the fullness of time, Life fulfills all of it’s Promises.  So do not despair utterly when heartache and suffering seem unbearable: this is merely the fulfillment of Life’s compact,  Rest assured that Life will again fulfill the richness of the Promise, and joy will return in abundance.  Patience is most assuredly a virtue, and perhaps the most important of them all.  For Patience and Promise we give thanks.  Blessed Be, and Amen.

Today may we join in fellowship and community.  May we be reminded of the roots that bind us.  May we recall that we are more together than we are individually.  May we endeavor to bring our whole, best selves.  May what we offer be received graciously.  May we receive gratefully.  Let us rejoice with each other, for when all else is stripped away, each other is all we have.  For community we are thankful.  Blessed Be, and Amen.

Whatever the challenge, no matter the obstacle, may we meet it with confidence and grace.  Whether we surmount it is less significant than how we engage it.  May we muster all that we are as we greet the day and all it has to offer.  For fortitude and character we give thanks.  Blessed Be, and Amen.