- Laura Perry
A Mid-Week Prayer
“This being human is a guest house,” the poet Rumi writes. “Every morning is a new arrival.”
Whatever guest arrives today, my prayer for you is that it will enrich your soul.
Last week, my husband and I had the privilege of spending a week at the Kanuga retreat with other Unity members and ministers. As we spoke truth into each other’s hearts and shared one another’s joys and sorrows, I felt my own spirit renewed. I felt burdens drop from my shoulders as they were shared with others walking the same path.
We were so fortunate to be able to afford this break. Many, many people the world over grapple with the petty tyrannies of everyday life without the luxury of rest. So today, I want to try to offer you a moment of rest.
This week, this day, this moment, I see you treading the path of your journey. Perhaps today is a day on which you feel joyful, connected, refreshed. Perhaps today heaviness seems to dog your steps. Perhaps you feel simply bored, tired, uninterested. Perhaps the world around you seems full of darkness and despair, and, even though you are safe and well-loved, you worry for society.
Whatever your place, please know that I am holding a prayer for you close to my heart.
If you are joyful, I rejoice with you. May your delight lift your soul and spill like irrepressible sunlight to all those around you. May you be a beacon of hope; may this joy fill the cracks of your broken places like molten gold. May your radiance be a blessing to the universe. May you have the joyful courage to speak love to everyone you see.
If you are sorrowful, I weep with you. May you be able to cherish and cradle the part of you that feels vulnerable and hurt, the same way a parent cradles a weeping child. May you feel a comfort that surpasses words, the presence of love all around you. May you know that you are not alone.
If you are content, I sit beside you in contentment. May you know peace in all your thoughts, dealings, and actions. May your contentment be with your soul, and not reliant on any external circumstances. May you continue to know the completeness and wholeness of your divinity, your place in the incomprehensibly beautiful Oneness of light. May each day bring you a deepening of your contentment, with roots so deep that no drought can touch.
If you are angry, I stand in solidarity with your rage. May this guest be the one who opens the door to all the hurt and insecurity and fear underlying your anger, for anger is a guest that never arrives alone. May your anger open your soul to rivers of light and healing, clearing the debris of past experiences before it and holding the future in tenderness and hope.
If you are hopeful, I affirm your hope. I look with widened eyes with you into the infinite. May your hope surpass all circumstances and ground you in the infinite possibility of Now. May you always be able to carry this treasure within you like the jewel of unnamable worth that it is. May you share your hope with others, brightening all of the world with your hopeful eyes.
If you are in despair, whether because of your own experiences or because of the events taking place on a national and international stage, I validate your experiences. May your despair be an unlooked-for gift, allowing you to see with greater clarity. May it give you greater empathy and love for others. May you be able to find your breath in your suffering, to breathe in and breathe out until despair yields to awareness. May you be able to see and love the green of one blade of grass, the beauty of one cloud, the loveliness of one chord of music. May you reach out to a friend for encouragement or solidarity. May you reach out to yourself, your own beautiful and transcendent soul.
May you be safe, may you be happy, may you be well.