I PRAY FOR LEADERS TONIGHT

I pray for heads of countries tonight
That they catch a glimpse of themselves
That they govern for the people
That they close their peacock feathers
That they be
Kinder
Nicer
More civil
Get better ideas
See a new model for living with all
See that very, very different is possible
Dare I hope?
Dare I not?

PRAYER POWER

The power of prayer is a big big big topic and this is a blog. I am introducing it to hear from you, dear reader (I love that Victorian phrase because you are a dear reader). I am finding that the best part of my book is the conversations I'm having when I mention it. 

So, power of prayer. Mmmmm. I know I have had prayers answered. 
Period! I know that I know the difference when it seems a prayer has been answered and when I've just been lucky. I know I brush off the anwered prayer rather quickly and just enjoy the result. Ingrate! I have seen the power of prayer in action in healing and it seems to be a felt reality among those praying.

Then there are the questions:
Who or what is being prayed to/toward?
What makes a prayer powerful?
Is prayer the right word for what goes on?
Is there a energetic power at work that "prayer" taps into?
What/who responds to prayer?
Is the act of prayerfulness what opens the person who prays to aligning with good?
Godness is not the Cistine Chapel guy, so what is?

By the way, prayer is not meant only to get the goodies for you or others.
But it seems to be what we turn to in hope or despair even if it is an inarticualte yearning. 

Would love to hear from you about the power of prayer.
You can respond here or at iprayanyway@gmail.com
Dear reader, I want to hear your voice.
PS--I don't publish comments without permission or unless you make them public.

AGNOSTIC--MY MAINE VACATION BOOK

I am on vacation and so will keep this short to get back to The Game of Life
being played with my eight year old grandson who finds it terribly slow and doesn't get the point but enjoys the popcorn.

My spiritual life would be a lot easier if I would simple stop reading so broadly.
But I won't. I just finished The AGNOSTIC MANIFESTO by Lesley Hazleton and had a good time with it.

It celebrates the role of doubt in faith, the fun of exploring ultimate meaning  with an open mind and heart and the needed importance of imperfection.

A few tidbits:

"Agnosticism takes a spirited delight in not knowing.
 We need room for mystery, for the imagination, for things sensed but not proven, intuited but not defined"

"I want to explore unanswerable questions."

"In doubt we trust!"

Montaigne--"we believe nothing so firmly as what we least know."

Voltaire--"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one."
  
And back to Hazleton--"In fact I find it hard--make that impossible--to trust anyone who never experiences doubt."

The book is full of good quotes and the delight of exploring the possible.

(PS--also read lots of mysteries which may just be redundant of AGNOSTIC)

THIS QUOTE MAKES ME CRAZY

"You'll never get it done. You cannot get it wrong. So don't you think it's time for you to lighten up and start having more fun with all of this, and accept that you are Eternal Beings?
And since you are Eternal Beings, then there's no point in rushing, because there's never going to be a time when you don't exist."  Abraham from Abraham-Hicks Publication.

Abraham is a channeled voice. Well, I can live with that. Who cares where wisdom comes from?
But still, like, where does Abraham live and speak from unless he's is Hick's own unconscious, subconscious thought? 

The quote is relieving and unsettling on so many levels: 

I really really know we won't get IT done. I was struck by that truth when my parents died withing ten days of one another. Yes I put closure on their physical life as I shut down the house and got rid of all their trappings. They went out in the middle. There were new clothes in a bag with price tags still on them. The wall calendar had lunch dates and church activities circled. There was damp laundry in the washing machine. We do die in the middle with unfinished everything---ambitions,
reconciliations, loving words unsaid. Still I balk at the messiness implied and would like lives to end like a good novel.

Accepting that we already are eternal beings is so reassuring isn't it? It makes Jesus' historic life much more palatable from a kind of cosmic science point of view. But being implies 'body' to me which then conjures up heaven and I'm back to nuts again. I imagine us as soul blogs bouncing around til we slide down the ramp (like the emergency exit on a plane) into another body to learn a little more and get some good done. Does it get crowded in eternity??

What would change for you if you really knew you were an eternal being?
Would you lighten up, have more fun?
Would you care about the impact of your life more or less?
Would you be reeeaaaallllly lazy?
Would you just walk around loving people?
What would you do about other's inhumane actions.

I love the quote. I love what it implies. I'm glad it makes me think. I'm not sure how it changes my day.