I am getting ready to travel. I am not really a relaxed, easy traveler, particularly when it involves flying across the country (though I am by no means a white knuckle traveler either.) But when you live at one edge of the country, getting to many places in the center or to the other edge requires it. I am going to the other edge–Virginia to be exact, to the greater Washington DC metropolitan area. I am on a psuedo secret mission the outcome of which I reveal in due course.
Tonight I’ve been packing, crossing things off my to-do list, printing out my boarding pass and trying to relax so I can get to sleep soon. Five a.m. will be here before I know it. I want to give myself enough time to write in my journal and be able to putter around a little bit before heading to the airport. My flight isn’t until 9:45 in the morning, but I’ll leave the house around 6:15 or so to give myself plenty of time to get there, catch the shuttle from the car park to the terminal, go through security and then, time permitting, get some breakfast before boarding the five hour flight to Virginia. So now I want to wind down and get ready to take my rest.
I am grateful this evening for the gift of words and language, specifically tonight, I am grateful for spiritual expression often referred to as prayer. I pray constantly, I can’t seem to help it and I don’t really try to help it. It is completely natural and effortless to me, as instantaneous as thought. But this morning, I took a slightly different direction with my praying. Sometimes I pray with intention, a specific prayer like the night prayer I’ve shared in previous blogs (Google, “Lord It Is Night” and you’ll find it.) I recite it a lot, though I haven’t memorized it yet. It is a good prayer as I wind down to go to sleep; I’ll probably say it tonight. This morning, though, I found myself wanting a morning prayer, and rather than Google, “Lord it is morning,” or return to my childhood “Morning Offering,” which has elements I don’t particularly ascribe to any more, I decided to write my own prayer.
After a moment of wondering to myself “Can I do that–write my own prayer?” I quickly chided myself, “Of course I can, I make up my own prayers all the time–every day in fact. But I guess when you commit something to paper or type it into your computer, it becomes more real somehow, more fixed. When you post it in your blog, I suppose it’s even more “out there.” That’s alright with me. I’m not trying to have my prayer inducted into a prayer hall of fame or included in a prayer book or anything else. It is to provide me with another means of expression, of communion between myself and One who is greater than I yet is also a part of me. So this morning I wrote a morning prayer in my journal. It is as yet unrefined, but that’s alright too. I offer it here as a gift of sorts in the same spirit in which I offer encouragement to each person reading this blog to consider what they are grateful for in their lives. I hope you find meaning in these words each night and in my Morning Prayer.
Good morning, God. It is a new day.Day time is full of activity and action; But in the early morning, let me turn to you while it is yet still. Let me offer this day and all it brings– the work that I do, the people I encounter, the triumphs and the challenges–for the good of all beings and to honor you. Let the actions of my hands, the thoughts of my mind, the meditation of my heart, and the song of my spirit be pleasing to you and to all those around me. In the midst of the busy-ness, let me feel myself enveloped by peace and calm. Let me experience moments of beauty and gratitude until the night time comes and it’s time to take my rest and reflect on the day just past. Keep my heart and mind in perfect peace. In your many names, I pray. Amen and let it be so!
© Marquita T. Chamblee, 2012
