2015-01-31

This Week's Prayer

Dear What Is:

We don’t always notice the reality we are in the middle of – like fish that forget about water because they are always immersed in it.

We would like to notice.

Wonder and beauty surrounds us.

Sometimes it’s like snow: bright and shining, glinting like diamonds -- and all we see is what a hassle and inconvenience it is.

Our lives are graced with so much to be thankful for: trees and oceans, people and wildlife, food and shelter, sunshine and air.

We would like to notice.

In the very midst of our overflowing bounty, there is also distress,anguish, pain, and loss. We would like to notice that, too – for we become real and realized by holding reality steadily before us, turning never away from the cries.

This week in South Sudan, 280 child soldiers were freed. The path of healing for them and their families is uncertain. So many good women and men dedicate the energies of their lives to building a world in which all children will be free to be children, to play, to laugh and sleep peacefully at night. Their work inspires us, their goals are ours, their task is nowhere near completion. We would like to notice – and support.

We remember the displaced, the refugees, and all who live in captivity.

We remember Kenji Goto of Japan.

Points east of here this week got the blizzard that we didn’t. We remember those for whom such snow and cold is neither pretty nor an inconvenience but a threat to health or life.

We would like to notice all that is – for presence to beauty and to tragedy alike is the ground of love.

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