Seeking Authentic Voice

What is prayer? A moment of silence Listening for a word Listening for direction Listening for hope Listening for rhythm Listening for the Divine. A feeling of peace When chaos abounds When there is noise all around When inside is in turmoil When the thrumming never ends But somehow, peace prevails. What is prayer? Spending a moment Anticipating God Trusting in love and willing to follow. What is prayer? This beautiful day. The lavender sky. The cool breeze at dawn. The bird song welcoming the sun. What is prayer? The indigo sky with glowing stars. The crickets singing the night song. The evening creatures nibbling clover. The orange moon slowly rising.   What is prayer? My time to sit and be with God and let go of everything else for just a moment. What is prayer? This moment.   May it be so. Amen. Prayer poem and photo by Terri C. Pilarski

Every day I see or I hear something that more or less kills me with delight, that leaves me like a needle in the haystack of light. It is what I was born for - to look, to listen, to lose myself inside this soft world - to instruct myself over and over in joy, and acclamation. Nor am I talking about the exceptional, the fearful, the dreadful, the very extravagant - but of the ordinary, the common, the very drab, the daily presentations. Oh, good scholar, I say to myself, how can you help but grow wise with such teachings as these - the untrimmable light of the world, the oceans's shrine, the prayers that are made out of grass? By Mary Oliver from, "Why I Wake Early" Beacon Press, 2004