Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Prayer and Intention


“To love one’s life, to treat one’s life as the gift it is, is surprisingly difficult. A thousand trivial pursuits--a thousand distractions, a thousand injustices, a thousand desires, work, television, rush hour traffic, the ignoramus or two who wants your vote--all attempt to obstruct the way. Let’s resolve not to let them. Today, let’s resolve together to live our lives in recognition of the gift it is, of the beauty around us, of the joy and harmony and balance that is possible.” 
Roderick MacIver, from A Pause for Beauty
Today, after a much better night’s rest than the night before, seeing the day ahead as a gift is surprisingly easy. I feel like a great weight has been lifted and I know several things I did yesterday contributed to it. One was sitting two times for about ten minutes in a restful position just listening: not meditating, not listening to the endless chatter of my mind, but what I call heart listening. It’s what I do when I say I’m praying. When I went to bed, I didn’t feel my mind chatter was vying for my attention. My challenge is to do it again today without the expectation of the same result.
Baruch ata adonai, I want to report how grateful I am to myself for staying with myself yesterday and doing what I need to do to sleep better. Today I am starting off feeling balanced. I didn’t know if it would help of not, but it did. Thank you for holding my hand. Amen

3 comments:

  1. I really admire your recognition of the fact that repeating the same process does not necessarily bring about the same result. I find this especially true in the world of prayer. The same place, the same words, the same melody...a different thought, a different emotion a different experience - almost every time.

    "May you lie down in peace and rise up to life renewed." (evening prayer service).

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  2. I Think tha all these distractions fall into the "busy trap"that fill up our daily lives and squeeze out what really matters.

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