Most days I walk outside and pray. I stand in the place where I live. So I invite you to now to join me, to see yourself outside or to remember being there. The air is fresh. You are in a place where you live.

We give thanks for waking this morning. For being given this day. For the sound of a bird. For a person we’ll see this morning.

We give thanks for the feel of the chill on our faces. For the blue of the sky. For a workmate, a client, a student, a teacher.

We notice our fears and our hopes: where we feel helpless, where we can act, what gives us pleasure. We give thanks for a friend.

And for our bodies — breathing, shivering, feeling. With gratitude and love we think of family — those of birth and those chosen — older, younger, creatures we share our lives with.

We may have turned as we prayed, orienting ourself to east and south, west and north. We may have stayed still feeling the pull of earth beneath us, the stretch of the sky above.

But this we know — we have walked our path in light and in shadow, and we shall continue. We feel the the cadence of this day, the cycle of our lives. We find a moment of peace. A great stillness.

For a holy place is within us all. It is up to us if we will allow our heart to occupy it. May it be there that we stand. May it be there that we live with so many people we love.

Amen.

 

—Jane S.