12 Apr First Day Thoughts – A prayer does make a difference
There was a lot of ministry in Quaker meeting this Sunday about areas of massive disaster… areas of war… areas in deep suffering.
When I hear of the suffering in Haiti, in Iraq, in Chile, in Poland… I feel a desperate desire, I mother’s desire to make it all well, to make it better. I physically crave to touch those in pain, to sooth the soul, to hold and hum away the hurt. I think I could leave… I could just get on a plane and go there… I could serve those in such great need, recovering from such destruction, devastation, loss… I think of the connections and commitments I have here. What trail of destruction would I leave behind by walking out the door, going to the airport, getting on a plane and being gone for months, years… I can go and sooth the child who has lost a mom by orphaning my own children, support a parent who has lost a spouse by denying my husband his own partner, I could work to rebuild by leaving a hole in my own company. Yes, there are ways and those who co go, who do balance, who do give so much to put the world back in the place for those who have been rocked to their very core. And it is a choice… I could go. I choose today to stay… and still I am left with the physical longing to do… something.
I sit in the silence of Quaker meeting and wander through my choices. I could and do send money… the great American way of doing… feels like handing a Scooby-Doo band-aid to a Haitian who has just lost everything… everything, every person, every item, everything.
I could simply pray.
The simplicity of it at first makes my scoff. Prayer… I could just sit here on this bench, not move, not give, not anything… and pray. That’s not doing anything my mind battles with itself.
Love. Send love. Love is always the answer, not matter the question. Find it inside, connect to it and send it out on a prayer.
I connect to the Great Connection. The force of Love that connects us all and I know, know in every cell of my being that a prayer is the most powerful thing I could do. I pray for those in suffering and in sorrow. I pray for those who are leaving home and country and loved ones to go and render aid. I pray that they will all find the strength they need to keep moving forward. I pray that they will all feel some sense of peace, if only for a moment. I pray they will feel a mother’s love, the touch of the Great Mother Spirit, watching over them. I send love out on the wire… and I know it will make a difference. It will help to make it all better.
(Thanx! for the pic: http://www.flickr.com/photos/revdave/459210631/)