2014-06-30

This Week's Prayer

Dear Beauty and Wholeness,

You surround us. May we know it and show it.

In the sounds of night, in the noises and smells of early morning traffic, in the clatter of human interaction, in the calls, cries, songs, and scuffles of animals, beauty and wholeness surround us. May we see it and be it.

Wherever we may be, in city, town, or field, in woods, desert, or upon the ocean, struggling with a diet of too many calories or too few, sitting in meditation or screaming in violent combat, beauty and wholeness surround us.

War and rumor of wars beset our time, as they have all times so far -- even as beauty and wholeness surround us.

In Syria and Iraq, in Somalia and South Sudan, in the West Bank and Egypt, in Ukraine and Afghanistan; our siblings suffer amidst the fighting. Our children are coopted and deceived to participate in violence, subverting their native impulse to love, peace and compassion. Beauty and wholeness surround us. May we take it and make it.

Courageous love breaks in and reaches out all around our world. Young people and old, rich people and poor, women and men, in ways humble or heroic, celebrated or unsung, manifest lives of love and care, peace and connection. Through their humane skill, they enable others around them to survive, to develop, to come at last into their own.

Thank you for the blessing and the revelation of their lives and their love. Thank you for every act, small or large, fleeting or enduring, by others or by ourselves, that came from you, Beauty and Wholeness.

May our hearts join in a tide of lovingkindness that reaches to every corner. May we let in and shine forth the beauty and wholeness that surrounds us.

Amen.

Photo by Meredith Garmon

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