How do you begin your day? Are you a coffee and the newspaper person? Or do you go for a walk with your dog or on your own as your first activity of the day?
As soon as I have made the bed, I head upstairs to my sanctuary garret. Until recently, I spent the first hour or more in meditation and devotion time. Lately, however, I have decided to use the first hours of my day for writing. Much to my surprise, the rest of the day seems to fall into place, including time for meditation later in the day.
Before I begin writing, however, I take a moment to breathe myself open to the day with a brief morning prayer. My morning prayer is my jumpstart into the day. I offer one of my own or I choose a favorite.
Dear God,
I give this day to You.
May my mind stay centered on the things of spirit.
May I not be tempted to stray from love.
As I begin this day, I open to receive You.
Please enter where you already abide.
May my mind and heart be pure and true, and may I not deviate from the things of goodness.
May I see the love and innocence in all humankind, behind the masks we all wear and the illusions of this worldly plane.
I surrender to You my doings of this day.
I ask only that they serve You and the healing of the world.
May I bring Your love and goodness with me, to give unto others wherever I go.
Make me the person You would have me be.
Direct my footsteps and show me what You would have me do.
Make the world a safer, more beautiful place.
Bless all your creatures.
Heal us all and use me, dear Lord, that I might know the joy of being used by You.
Amen.
Marianne Williamson
May I live this day
Compassionate of heart,
Clear in word,
Gracious in awareness,
Courageous in thought,
Generous in love.
May I have the courage today
To live the life that I would love,
To postpone my dream no longer
But do at last what I came here for
And waste my heart on fear no more.
John O'Donohue
Beloved Friend, I open myself to be of service. Please help me be your arms and willingly hold those who need a healing touch. Open my eyes that I may truly see what you ask of me today. Open my ears that I may truly hear and respond to the cries of joy and sorrow from your children. May the words of my mouth be the meditations of your heart and may I sow peace wherever I go. Amen.
Unknown
No matter what else happens in the day, what direction I am bidden or what new choices are presented, I have had this quiet moment of connection with the Divine.
An Invitation
How do you start your day? What prayer, formal or informal, do you offer as you start a new day? I would love to know.
As I set out on my walk this morning, I wondered if my walking time would yield a topic for this post. I hoped it would, for I didn't seem to have any ideas in a stash ready to be accessed. The morning was fresh and clear and truly, a spring day, rather than a day transitioning from late winter to spring. That was last week, when I wondered if I had stored my winter clothes too soon.
This morning, however, I allowed myself to just BE spring. I noticed how neighbors had moved furniture onto decks and patios. Spring clean-up had gotten many helping hands over the weekend. Pots emptied of gristly, dried evergreen branches leftover from the holidays. Garden beds cleared of leaf mulch, uncovering green tips eager to make an appearance. Bikes and rakes leaned against garage walls and front storm doors were open, welcoming the sun inside. Soon windows will be open, too. Spring has eased its way home and has invited us to newness within ourselves.
John O'Donohue http://www.johnodonohue.com says in his book, To Bless the Space Between Us, A Book of Blessings, "I have never seen anyone take a risk for growth that was not rewarded a thousand times over."
It seems to me spring is the reminder to "take a risk for growth."
When we lived in the Cleveland area we often heard people say that it wasn't really spring until it had snowed on the daffodils three times. Those daffodils took a risk for growth every year, never knowing how much cold, how many inches of snow they would have to survive in order to thrive. What good role models those daffodils can be for each of us, as we enter this next season of the year and perhaps a new season in our life as well.
I returned home, not with any clear cut idea for today's post, but I had seen trees newly clothed in leaves and blossoms. I had noticed greens Sherwin Williams and Benjamin Moore at this very minute are trying to replicate. I had seen children on their way to school, bold and newly unbundled. Why not discard my sweater, too, and eliminate a layer of self-absorption or self-doubt? I expanded my lungs with freshness, like sheets drying on a clothesline, swelling in the breeze.
Now is the time. This is the season. Be a daffodil and take a risk. Be the green without a name. Discard one more layer, reaching into your essence. Unbundle. Blossom. Reach up. Grow.
Marianne Williamson's prayer for a new day from Illuminata, A Return to Prayer, p. 79 http://www.marianne.com
Dear God,
Thank you for this new day, its beauty and its light.
Thank you for the chance to begin again.
Free me from the limitations of yesterday.
Today may be reborn.
May I become more fully a reflection of Your radiance.
Give me strength and compassion and courage and wisdom.
Show me the light in myself and others.
May I recognize the good that is available everywhere.
May I be, this day, an instrument of love and healing.
Lead me into gentle pastures.
Give me deep peace that I might serve You most deeply.
Amen.
An Invitation
How can spring be your teacher? How will spring enter your life? I would love to know.
