"Listen, stand up in prayer during the night for you are a candle and at night a candle stands and burns."  Rumi

    I pray to be a candle burning brightly for you.
   I pray to stand like a candle with an eternal light.
   I pray to not stand in darkness.
   I pray to call in the light for me and for you.

  Out there in the distance I see you somewhere burning brightly.

  Amen.

"At last you have departed and gone to the Unseen
what marvelous route did you take from this world." Rumi


  I want to know the world of the soul
  I want to see it, taste it, touch it.
  It's no good just imagining it.
  I pray to know you are all right.
  I pray to know there's nothing to fear for you.
  I pray for you to be like a golden star
   living eternally in a soul sky.

   Amen.

I pray for continued guidance to a land where worries fade and joy has a new name.

Amen.

Peace be with you.... and with me.

  Sometimes I didn't say or do the right thing.
  Sometimes I was selfish, thinking only of what I wanted to do.
  Sometimes I was careless, sloppy in word and deed.
  Sometimes I was angry and fear took over.
  Sometimes I went away too long.
  Sometimes I didn't appreciate what I had.
  Sometimes I watched you work while I stood by.
  Sometimes I was afraid to talk to you.
  Sometimes I didn't say what I meant.
  Sometimes I brushed you off at times I feel now it was important to have responded.
  I don't know why I did all these things.
  And nothing I do or say now will change them.
  Forgive me. For everything.
  Forgive me, for my weakness and my selfishness.
  Forgive me for my inadequacies.
  Forgive me for my imperfection.
  Forgive me for my lack of courage.
  Forgive me for all my flaws and missteps.
  I loved you through it all.
  I love you still.
  I pray for you each morning with all that I know how to pray with.
  I pray to a God I can't see or know.
  I pray to a Source I don't understand.
  I pray that whoever took you from me
  Keeps you safe and peaceful.

   Haiku/ September 26, 2010 East River

     Strong rays of light come
     A lifting of the dark clouds
     Temporary sun.

"Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace, where there is hatred, let me sow love.
 where there is despair, hope, where there is darkness, light, where there is sadness, joy.
 O Divine Master, grant that I may not seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love, for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life."  St Francis of Assisi

  Your favorite prayer, now mine too.
   I recite it by heart. I say it for you.
   I love you and live for your eternal life,
   and for my eternal life.
  I pray each day for you.  You are in the heart of my heart.
          Amen.

   Somewhere over the rainbow

  "Love has thousands of names, millions of faces.  It will give you everything and ask for only one thing in return - that it may come and wear your face, that you will let it use your name." Daphne Rose Kingma

     I pray to take the love you gave me, give to me, and see it in everyone and in everything.
     I pray to bless everyone with your love for me and my love for you.
     I pray to walk in love, to be love.
     I pray to not let sadness carry me away, far from love, but to only bring me closer.

     I pray for your soul. 
     wherever it is over the rainbow....


    Amen

Morning Glory2

I don't know what to pray for
I want you back
that's not going to happen.
I pray for your spirit, everyday.
maybe spirits don't need our prayers
I don't know.
I speak to the Divine and ask that you are taken care of...
in whatever ways souls need care.
We cared for you with our love
and you knew it.
and appreciated it.
You were our love.
You are our love.

For myself:
 I pray just to live,
 to not waste this life you gave me.

Peace be with you
and also with me....

Amen.

"morning glory"

 I pray for you
 I pray for your eternal life
 I pray to be with you,
 forever.

   Amen

"All beings are blossoms blossoming in a blossoming universe."  Soen Roshi
  
"The September sun warms my face
 with happiness
 Life returns to life"

Every day I pray for you
hear my prayer
I pray for your soul
to be in light
to feel my love
eternally
and I pray for myself
to blossom

Amen.

"The first step in becoming more patient is giving up the need to fix or change things - it is having the awareness that some things are the way they are for a reason, even if we don't think so or can't see it.  If something is not changeable, try to see it as not broken.  Try to find a little faith in the process and the unfolding of things.  Despite our belief that things need our assistance, most of the amazing things that happen in the world occur without our help, interference, or assistance.  There is a power in the world.  Trust that all things are moving toward the good, even when we don't recognize it or see it.  That is faith.. Having patience is having faith."   Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

  I pray for patience to accept what my mind can not accept.
  I pray for the space to find faith.
  I don't know why I have to endure the unendurable.
  I don't know why I have to accept the unacceptable.
  I only know that I can not change it.
 
   Amen.

"This is love: to fly toward a secret sky, to cause a hundred veils to fall each moment.  First, to let go of life.
Finally, to take a step without feet."   Rumi

I pray "to take a step without feet"
to let go of this life I'm clinging to.
You are a rose,
in eternal blossoming.

Amen.

There are no words this morning.
only regret.
"I have no regrets," you told my mother.
And I have so many.
That last night I should have known,
should have believed it was more than just pain from compression,
should have stayed awake the whole night long
I can not undo what I have done.
is it going to haunt me forever?
If only I hadn't been what I am, what I was,
I could have done something to help you.
I did only silly things, and they didn't help.
What plagues me now is that you counted on me,
depended on me to help you, save you
and I didn't.
it's not your forgiveness I am looking for,
I believe you are in a place that doesn't need even the concept of forgiveness
is it my own I want.
and it may never come.
and that is too much to bear.
why am I the way I am?
I have no answers.
If I could be like you for even a day the world would change.
I pray this morning for myself,
to see myself for what I am.
If I could be more like you things would be different.
I know wherever you are, there's happiness
because you are there.

"The Day"

   On this day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins you shall be clean before the Lord."  Lev. 16:30
  It is time to let go of past transgressions.
  To start anew.
 "The old has passed away, the new has come."

  A new beginning? I don't know where to find it.
  The mournful melody I sing,  I don't know how to stop.
  I pray for you every day, I pray to know your soul in whatever form it is now,
  yet not keep you from your destiny.
  I pray to live life.
   And on this day I pray to be forgiven for all the past, to be forgiven by anyone I have offended, for any sin I committed in stubbornness or in error, for the sin committed by word of mouth, by deed, by thought, I let the past go. 
 I shut out all the past, all regrets, all sins, all remorse and guilt.  I send my sins into the sea.  lost among the waves. forever.

land diary

You are an ocean
sending your rhythm of waves,
a hand reaching out.
I am a small sea
waiting.
Pray for me, that I may enter your waters.


 "It is the oceans in which seas empty their water while oceans do not seek any outlet.
  Oceans are bigger than seas.
 A sea is more or less enclosed and separated from the larger ocean by land."

sea diary

this morning at dawn
I felt I could not continue
I don't know where is the next step
What am I here to accomplish?
And how will I make that happen?
I sat by the sea
waiting for the divine, for you, to send me a sign.
No sign appeared.
No voices or even light taps on the shoulder.
I walked into the water, too afraid to walk out far enough to not turn back.
Everything scared me, the waves, the undertow, the loneliness of the beach.
And then wet and cold I left the beach
looking for safety.
I pray the biggest prayer I can pray.
HELP

I need liftoff....

"They also serve who only stand and wait"
                             Milton,  ( my father's saying to me)

Standing at the sea
waves at my feet
I am waiting for something
for you
to come back
to send a sign of peace
from beyond
that there is nothing to worry about anymore.
how can I serve you now?
I pray to know.

Amen

" Death is just another event along the way. Death has a universal quality, it is nothing special. It's as common as God, inherent in every moment.
The idea that the soul will join with the ecstatic just because the body is rotten - that is all fantasy.  What is found now is found then.  If you find nothing now, you will simply end up with an empty apartment in the City of Death.  If you make love with the Divine now, in the next life you will have the face of satisfied desire.  Death is not going home.  Our home is the heart, our real nature."  Kabir

 river walk

I don't know what to pray for.
Prayer is talking to God?
Am I?
 The goat's naked face reminds me of you
guileless, honest.  curious.

The river stays constant, an ever changing face, yet always the same,
it knows how to stay within its bounds

I watch the cars and school buses on the bridge
tears fill my eyes for no reason other than they exist.

"Does everything move you,"  I said.
"Yes,"  you said.

You always were and you always will be, world with end Amen.

"The beach is empty, but not the ocean beyond."
The Outermost House, Henry Beston

You light on other shores.

My beach is empty.

I can not capture you to bring you back.

Alone, I look out,

gazing at the sea, reluctant to leave.

Godspeed.

Amen.

"Your absence has gone through me
 Like thread through a needle
 Everything I do is
 Stitched with its color." W. S. Merwin


Bird in Flight

This morning I am like

the small gray bird asleep on the sidewalk

waiting for the moment to lift my wings

and fly off.


I pray for your soul in flight

singing as it races toward the light

I pray to the God that is part of you,

part of me, keep your song alive.

"This is the time of teaching. What you teach at this time, through your every word and action right now, will remain as indelible lessons in the hearts of those whose lives you touch, both now and for years to come. We shall set the course for tomorrow today.

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness. " The Dalai Lama

You were my first teacher,
my life long teacher.

You gave lessons with your eyes of compassion
your generous heart, your willing attitude, your laughter.
Your kindness was in your every touch

I pray to live the lessons with grace.


Amen.

You gave me the "gift of life."

I pray to honor it.

You gave me love

I pray to respect it.

You, without asking for anything in return, gave everything for me.

I pray to give love without asking.

I pray for both of us.

May we be guided by the light of the world forever.


Amen

"One must be free to be completely a light to oneself. A light to oneself? This light can not be given by another, nor can you light it at the candle of another. If you light it at the candle of another, it is just a candle, it can be blown out." Krishnamurti


I pray to give up understanding.

I pray to throw out logic.

I pray to fall into the miracles that arrive like distant stars

on the banks of my soul.

I pray for your soul to be traveling in full circles

far away and then returning to the circle of life

back home.


Amen.

You built a house for me
and I knocked it down

You built a house for me
and I knocked it down

You built a house for me
and I knocked it down.

Now you are gone
and I have to build it myself.

I pray for help.

Amen.

"I am so small I can barely be seen. How can this great love be inside me? Look at your eyes they're small but they see enormous things." Rumi



Let me mine my gifts and throw a thousand lit stars up into the air

so that I can see your face again.

I pray to see deeper and go wider than ordinary life.

I pray to go beyond what I see here and now.

I pray to know eternity.

Amen.


"The grief you cry out from draws you to union." Rumi

"There is nothing that does not serve the process of your soul's growth."




God sent me an angel to be my father,

my protector, my wise counsel, my friend.


"I offer these roses, just blooming." Du Bellay


I pray that I gave you some peace of mind

I pray that I sometimes made you laugh

that I brought joy to you.

that I shared in your joy for life.



The miracle of you can never be erased, can never be destroyed, can never end.

Although it's dark inside, I pray for light to find its way back to me.

I pray to be guided to love and light.





Amen.

I pray for peace for all life.
May your soul rest eternally.
May the wind in the trees, the birds in the woods, the rain in the air
all sing your name.
Forever.

"Your cause of sorrow

Must not be measured by his 'worth, for then

It hath no end."
                                Shakespeare/ Macbeth


I pray to turn life into something good and worthy of your love and guidance.

I pray to take this sadness and turn it into something brave.

I pray always for your soul, to soar and sail in the air, in the wind, in the sea,

free and whole.


Amen


I pray to God to help me.

"We are not here as human beings having a spiritual experience, we are here as spiritual beings having a human experience." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin




Under our infinite sky

in our earthly infinite

I pray for eternal love

to keep us, to follow us wherever we go.


I pray for you out in the infinite.

"Since love grows within you, so beauty grows.  For love is the beauty of the soul." St. Augustine

"You can't measure love by one moment, one action. We must try to see love in the big picture, not in a single detail." Elizabeth Kubler Ross




I pray for your forgiveness

for all the acts of love and kindness I withheld

and all the words of love I kept to myself

I'll say now you are the love in my life, you always were and you always will be.



Amen

September 1st



Hear my prayer.

Know my heart.

I pray that the kindness I know

from your soul

hears me.


I pray to cross over

the bridge of faith



"Follow the path until life is over."

Balthus