Powerful pray experiences began with the image this week. I was totally enveloped by this image, spontaneously saying out loud: Oh, this is me! A wave of despair washed over me, quickly, from fear to it is okay, the blindfold, the chain, connected to the source of deep listening, position of both hands, this is my life, grounded on this earth as well as grounded and enveloped by the cosmos? by a felt sense that today I am naming as Wisdom. I met this Wisdom that came more and more alive to me with the common lectionary readings from the book of Wisdom this week, especially.( Ws 7:22-8:1) Word after word flooded my whole being, “fashioner, holy, unique, subtle, more mobile than any motion, ….” Willing to plumb new depths of despair I found the real HOPE. Twenty years ago I read, pondered, re-ponded, got friends to ponder, where we shared our pondering. The book was Scarred by Struggle, Transformed by Hope” (Joan Chittister). Watts image brought me face to face real hope. I call George a kindred spirit. My ego self has gone through huge conversion and today is okay when huge volcanic irruptions took me right back to me childhood home, when I, the big girl, learned not to ask for help. Two powerful episodes this week, one asking a friend to bring me a 2024 daily planner from office. The city responding to a sewer problem, closed off my street. When she finally found how to get to me, I felt so responsible for her loss of time. My descent into “oh, no” was short lived when I realized this will make a great story when we gather for lunch. I can just feel the laughter, the teasing, which makes for healthy staff interchanges. The other a situation of huge injustice for fragile group of senior persons. I got the ball rolling ( no descent this time) by going to the source through an email, to get out the info we needed for a gathering next week. I hate confronting people who are remiss in their responsibilities. A few or (more than a few) Welcoming prayers in the days to come will assist my ego-self in letting go, becoming more and more okay with deep listening to the Fashioner, unpolluting, … TRUSTING the POWER of that BREATH, (Ws 7:22-8:1).
