Love

Not too long ago a very good friend offered me this advice – when you are in despair, stop and pray. But don’t pray for yourself alone. Pray for others who are experiencing whatever it is that has you in its grip. And pray for yourself last, by the time you get to that part of the prayer, your hardship won’t feel nearly as heavy. Well, the past few weeks or so have been tough for me, and I’ve heard others around me express feelings of distress. One person said that something just feels “off,” another used the word “unsettled.” And it’s not surprising; it’s now a year and a half since the economic meltdown began. People who joked uneasily a year or so ago about being members of the “$405 club” aren’t joking now. In New York $405 per week is the maximum pay out for unemployment. And even though the number of unemployed isn’t much different than when this whole slide began, the U.S. Senate just let a bill to provide another nine week emergency extension of unemployment benefits die. Now we’re “joking” about whether there’s wi fi under the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. Whether this “unsettled” feeling is about our economic situation or some astrological movement of the planets, or something else entirely, I certainly can’t say. But whatever “it” is, it just feels bad.

For lack of anything else I could think of to try, I decided to follow my friend’s advice. Here is the prayer, or poem, or whatever you’d like to call it that I wrote. I hope it helps even a little bit.

As I am weary, please watch over all who are weary. As I am worried about a roof over my head and food on the table, please watch over all who are homeless, or fearing homelessness and those who are hungry.

As I feel alone, please watch over all who feel friendless and alone.

I ask that all who need to feel your love and light around them, be blessed by receiving those gifts.

And especially as I sometimes doubt your love for me, as I doubt even your existence, when my faith falters, I ask that you reach out to all who need a reminder of your presence and that you cover us with the blanket of your love, just as gently as grandma would tuck us in at night underneath her soft and warm quilt, making sure to kiss us tenderly on the forehead and bid us to sleep well.