solstice prayers

 

“When the world pushes you to the ground, you’re in the perfect position to pray.” Rumi

Solstice. Changing daylight, changing seasons, cycles of the moon and movements of the sun. A moment to stand still, like the sun, gather my intentions and send up prayers.

I pray to be open to what life tosses me today…a sick friend, a nameless worry that nips at my heels like a young coyote… to practice again and again breathing out the fear and breathing in the willingness to stand and say yes, I’m here, I’m willing. I pray that when I set foot on the earth I give praise, to my foot, to the earth holding my foot so tenderly, to the sky looking down on us, saying open yourself to this day as I am open, wide, accepting.

I pray for my younger self who went hungry for love, hungry for comfort. I tuck her close by my side, under a wide green cloak as I go about my day, letting the murmuring wound she carries inform me, soften me to the pain of others.

I pray for the earth and all that is vanishing. May I care with exquisite tenderness the garden that has been given me to tend. May I remember that we are all yearning for the right soil to flourish in, strong enough to send up shoots and release the sweet scent of our true being in bloom.

I pray that the benefit from the food I eat be shared with all who hunger, and despite a small voice that says what good does that do? I persist.

I pray for forgiveness: from others for the times I withheld my love from a sense of lack, from myself for the times I hung back in the shadows for fear of shining.

I pray to continue practicing patience, to think before I speak, to speak from a place of kindness.

I pray for the willingness to stay open to the suffering of others…the children in detention centers, the ceaseless wail of their parents. Can I bear witness to the species on the verge of extinction? And who would I be if couldn’t?

I pray for the stability and courage to live in a constant state of uncertainty and change.

I pray for my ancestors who bore a grief they are asking me to heal.

I pray that as we stand in the radiance of the summer sun, we fill ourselves with light to shine in the times of darkness ahead.

I pray for a download of mercy for us all. May we banish all doubt that we are gifted, that what we say and do matters, that we are loved by Spirit beyond our understanding, and that it is safe, it is time, to share our love with a full heart, a sorrowing and joyful heart, a heart that asks to be of service to a broken world.