What is Prayer?
Prayer
is intimacy with the Great Mystery.
Be
every moment aware of the Presence —
how
you are loved!
She
takes off Her wings
to
heal you, He surrenders
everything
for your sake.
At
all times in every
hidden,
open place
It
lives in your deep
soul’s
core, It moves
in
your moving and acts
through
your skin
and
the skin or bark or shell
of
all living beings— forms of angels,
and
also of water, rocks, and fire.
So
be awake to the life that is loving you
and
sing your prayer, laugh your prayer,
dance
your prayer, run and weep and
sweat
your prayer,
sleep
your prayer, eat your prayer,
paint,
sculpt, hammer and read your prayer,
sweep,
dig, rake, drive and hoe your prayer,
garden
and farm and build and clean your prayer,
wash,
iron, vacuum, sew, embroider and pickle your prayer,
compute,
touch, bend and fold, but never delete
or
mutilate your prayer.
Learn
and play your prayer,
work
and rest your prayer,
fast
and feast your prayer,
argue,
talk, whisper, listen and shout your prayer,
groan
and moan and spit and sneeze your prayer,
swim
and hunt and cook your prayer,
digest
and become your prayer.
Release
and recover your prayer.
Breathe
your prayer.
Be
your prayer.
Let
prayer be your thinking
and
thriving, your passionate
living
and humble dying
back
into Earth and God.
Let
prayer be your senses and sex,
your
political power, your confusion
and
vision for good.
Let
teaching tolerance and all childcare be prayer.
Let
your mistakes be a prayer, and your unknowing.
Let
remorse and forgiveness be prayer.
Make
love in every act,
create
growth in each intent.
Nature
in any form serves
as
sanctuary and temple.
Let
your bath be an oracle chamber,
every
trip anywhere a pilgrimage,
and
your dream bed each night
the
Holy of Holies.
And
so you are praying.
So
you do what you be,
and
all your being is blessed
and
all your life is a prayer.
And
all your acts are a blessing.
Alla
Renée Bozarth
From
Moving to the Edge of the World
by
Alla Renée Bozarth, iUniverse 2003.
All rights reserved.
For
permission to reprint or for any other reason, contact
the
poet at allabearheart@yahoo.com
Write “Permission”
or
“Poetry” in the subject line. Also see
photo by Helen Forshee taken at Butchart Gardens, B.C.