“You carry Mother Earth within you, She is not outside of you. Mother Earth is not just your environment. In that insight of inter-being, it is possible to have real communication with the Earth, which is the highest form of prayer. In that kind of relationship you have enough love, strength and awakening in order to change your life.”
–Thich Nhat Hanh
“Let me seek then, the gift of silence and solitude, where everything I touch is turned into a prayer: where the sky is my prayer, the birds are my prayer, the wind in the trees is my prayer…”-Thomas Merton
The definition of prayer by Hildegard of Bingen,
“Breathing in and breathing out the one breath of the Universe.”
-Hildegard of Bingen
Prayer indeed. While saying thank you, the most essential prayer.
Mark Nepo in his chapter “A Reality That Keeps Unfolding,” in Seven Thousand Ways to Listen, says of the breath of prayer:
“This is listening with our entire being. It speaks to an immersion of attention that all the traditions aspire to; each claiming in its own way that peace resides in this completeness which arises when our individual sense of being merges with the ongoing stream of being that is the heartbeat of the Universe. Whether these moments arise from great stillness or great suffering or great love, they all seem unexpected and seem to depend on our ability to hold nothing back.”
Timely words in these days of stillness, suffering and great love that we all are experiencing around our planet. Today, may you find this peace residing in completeness with the heartbeat of the Universe as you navigate your new normal.
Hold nothing back.
“It doesn’t have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patcha few words together and don’t try
to make them elaborate, this isn’t
a contest but the doorwayinto thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.”-Mary Oliver
From The Minds Journal I found the following interpretation of prayer and it resonated deeply. For me, nature’s wonder, these mountains, this majesty, allows and invites a prayerful approach; a reverent way of being alive absorbed by this commanding presence.
Keep praying always…. in all the ways that speak to you.
“…I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”-Mary Oliver (from “A Summer’s Day”)
“If the only prayer you ever say is, “thank you”,
it will be enough”.– Meister Eckhart“For all that has been, Thank you!
For all that is to come, Yes!”
-Dag Hammarskjold
