Sunrise & IceI woke up at 2:00-ish last night, that time zone of potential fearful fretfulness. Most wonderfully, I didn’t wake into anxiety, but into the arms of George Harrison.
Although I do love George, this was our first private visitation.
I was flattered. And I was awed.
He was so present; he sang clearly and softly, repeating his message again and again. Here’s his 2:00 a.m. offering:
This next day, George and his prayer were never far from me.
I was blessed by him and by his prayer.
His prayer! His song is a prayer.
Dare I talk to you all about prayer? Dare I think myself that bodacious, that confident?
Inspired by this quiet man’s deep commitment to Grace, I will try:
- Prayer doesn’t change my reality.
- Prayer can change my relationship to it.
- Prayer can shift me from a claws-on-grip, wanting what I want, to a softer, a more open-palm relationship with the moment.
- Prayer is painfully private for me; in all my writing, I have mentioned it only briefly. I don’t know why this is so.
- Prayer can be a tether, returning me to the moment as it is.
- Prayer can interrupt the spinning out of my mind, the galloping, worst-case scenario so persistently being narrated.
- Prayer can deepen its impact and staying-power, when repeated and continual.
- Prayer, when combined with movement, can connect me deeply to Truth, to Silence.
- As George says, prayer can connect us to Love, to Peace, on earth, in a single nanosecond.
- Prayer can be anything.
Listen to his words, in bold italics below:
Give me love
Give me love
Give me peace on earth
No matter what is happening, right here and right now, let me find the love in it, the tender connection between me and this moment. It is always there, when I dare to look. Give me peace. Here and now, in this moment, on earth, as it is. Not as I think it should be. Right here.
Give me light
Give me life
Light and life, always returning to the commitment of choosing life, as it is.
Keep me free from birth
Free from birth! Free from creating new karma. Help me to show up with you, with us, all, in ways that touch into love, without mucking around, without making more of a mess.
Give me hope
Help me cope, with this heavy load
Hope has been such a scarcity these days! The heaviness eases, it all eases, when I remember that I am not alone. Without that connection, without that silent protection and care, everything does feel like a heavy load. Even the stuff I want and like and need.
Trying to, touch and reach you with,
Heart and soul
George said in 1971, “I want to be God-conscious. That’s really my only ambition, and everything else in life is incidental.” Me, too. That is really all I ever wanted. Perhaps this explains my shyness around prayer. It certainly explains my twenty-year active addiction. I wanted God.
Om m m m m m m m m m m m m m
My lord
How many times have I chanted om? How many hundreds/thousands of times have I had the most wonderous blessing of praying with you all, bringing grounding and connection to the moment? Om is a way-cool shared prayer!
Please take hold of my hand, that
I might understand you
Understanding is fully outside my pay-grade. I’m going for relaxing. Allowing. Softening.
Won’t you please..
Oh, won’t you…..
Always returning, always coming back. If you fall 100 times, just get up 101 times.
Oh, George, I thank you.
Annie Lamott names the three essential prayers, “Help, Thanks, Wow.”
Prayer doesn’t have to be fancy, hard, or in a foreign language.
Prayer cannot be offered wrongly; its gifts are always waiting.
Like tuning the static out of a radio dial, tuning back into the current, back into the channel.
The infinite and always-available channel.
Give me love.
Give me love.
It’s truly all I want.
Dearest of Reader Folk, what about you? How does this blog land for you? Is prayer a part of your life? What works? What doesn’t? As always, keep me posted. I am aruni@rnetworx.com.
All blessings,
Aruni