UNITY World Prayer Day - September 10, 2015

I always say I do not pray. I certainly do not bargain or beg or promise. But I do contemplate my behavior, my actions, my wishes and desires; and when I am unhappy with them attempt to change them. Maybe that is what you call prayer. Maybe it is a question of semantics.

I won't even go into "Is there a God?" Lets just say that I respect you calling him/her what you want. I always say I do not believe in God but I do believe that there is something greater than I could ever hope to understand that somehow exists "so far out there" or "so deep inside" that helps govern our world, our lives, our selves.

I believe in meditation. I believe in quieting myself from the daily rigors and activities and craziness of each day and night.

I believe in doing good for those who need our support or help. I believe in lending an ear to someone who needs to talk. I believe in doing something for someone who cannot do it for them-self. I believe in holding someone's hand and sitting together silently.

I believe in doing what I can to help relieve suffering and pain; in myself, in my family and friends, in my community, in my world.

I believe that we, as individuals, by our beliefs and actions can change the world into a better place for everyone who lives here with us.

Then something like UNITY's World Prayer Day occurs and I feel good about it. UNITY is a positive religion that embraces most beliefs. Unity has people and centers that spend their time praying for others and their needs.

Maybe just that outpouring of energy can make a difference, maybe just the good feelings that occur inside a person when thinking and/or believing that this is possible can make a difference, maybe you and I can make a difference.

Here is more information about UNITY's World Prayer Day. Each link opens in a new window.

Click here for the Unity Site
Click here to learn more about World Prayer Day
Click here to light a candle for World Prayer Day
Click here to add names to the World Prayer Day list

Gayle

Gayle lives at Lieberman on the assisted living floor. She and I have crossed paths a number of times on the elevator and I always smile and say hello to her.

Today she was at the Sunday November Birthday Party in the community room sitting not too far away from Gregory, Manny, and me.

She is pleasant enough but approaching her is a little difficult because of her lack of grooming, her being dressed in a night gown instead of something more appropriate to the party, her sad dour look.

I was feeling particularly sad for myself trying to cope with some of the more recent changes Gregory has been going through. Today he was extra quiet, seemed drugged, his neck holding his head at a painfully crooked angle, and his face looking like it was just hanging there.

Manny had tried to prop his head with pillows but instead of Gregory taking the pressure off his neck by leaning on the pillows, he seemed to rather hold it at that awkward angle.

So there I was sitting, holding and stroking Gregory's hand, listening to the singer crooning love songs, with tears running down my eyes.

I looked up and noticed Gayle sitting there looking at us. It seemed as if she had tears in her eyes. I thought to myself, I need to go over and chat with her a little. If I give her some of my love, I might be better able to carry my sorrow.

I walked over to her wheelchair, kneeled down, took her hand and said, "Hi."

She greeted me. "He is so young, you know!" she said about Gregory. "You know I pray for you both every time I see you and your love for each other."

"Sometimes I wonder if there is a God?" she asked.

I thanked her for her prayers and her kind thoughts and tried to cheer her up a little, "Well you know, Gregory is happy and calm and content in his own way. They take very good care of him here. And there is a God if only because of your prayers and smile. We both appreciate that very much."

She smiled back as I took my leave and went back to hold Gregory's hand. It worked. I gave away love and was given love in return, and contentment, and peace.

Life or Death

Powerful statement about "praying" that someone gets well.

Sometimes someone will be sick, and someone who loves the sick person will say, "Abraham, I'm wanting to help this person." And we say, just hold the image of them in a place of utter Well-being, and trust that through the path of least resistance, either they will recover and Well-being will be restored here, or they will withdraw and Well-being will be restored there. But in either case, whether they stay or whether they have what you call death experience, the Well-being is always restored. 

Taken from: Abraham-Hicks 
http://www.abraham-hicks.com/lawofattractionsource/about_abraham.php

Laughing into Tears

Crying is so much like laughter and laughter is so much like crying. Sitting with Gregory at the hospital I found that we would laugh together with tears right behind. Emotions Emotions go away. Come again another day.

In some way I am feeling numb again, which I have experienced at various stages in the progression of Gregory's illness. This time it is as if he has died and in some ways he has. There are a lot of "never agains" and "forevers."

He will never be able to come home again. He will never visit the condo again. We will never be able to decorate for Christmas at home. Many traditions are gone and over. The kitties miss his being here and he will never be able to take a nap in the bedroom with them ending up in his lap asleep and purring. Dinner parties? Overnight guests? Holidays? Birthdays? Grocery shopping? Sitting in the TV room? and on and on.

Slowly I will get used to living alone. Last night I panicked three times when waking up, realizing that he was not in bed with me, afraid he had "wandered," and then realizing that I didn't need to worry about where he is.

As you know, I do not believe in prayer, but it seems anyway appropriate to say that I just hope that he is able to settle into the Lieberman Center and that he is not aware of what his surroundings really look like.

Prayer

Often people will tell me that they are praying for Gregory and me. Other times people will ask us to pray for them or their loved ones. It is not that I mind, it is just that I am not sure "I believe."

When they say they are praying for us, I appreciate the love and understanding they are showing us. When asking us to pray for them, I appreciate the love and support for which they are asking.

We are not religious, we consider ourselves spiritual. We do not embrace any particular religion, Possibly Buddhism, which is more a belief system, is closer to what we do believe in. We do not pray or believe in some outside power taking care of us, we believe that God is within us, is us! I have written about this before.

My usual Facebook response to prayer, which I think serves the same purpose of making someone who has asked for our prayers feel heard is to say, "Sending positive healing thoughts to you and yours."

Recently this request was met by my further thoughts. Perhaps prayer is a way of centering oneself and focusing one's attention so action and/or thoughts can be directed towards new solutions, understandings, actions. I believe that the answer is within a person, not manifested in some outward diety or entity sitting on a throne in judgement of me.

I do not believe that begging, or bargaining, or feeling guilty is what a God would want from us. I think he/she would want us to have confidence in ourselves and know that we have all we need to make good decisions, come to good conclusions, take appropriate actions to solve our problems, to be good people ... or at least to be at peace if the difficulties cannot be solved/changed. And the courage to know and accept the difference?

Meditation: Round 2: Practice 7

The Intention of today's Practice was peace and calm and healing not only for ourselves but also for the world. This in light of the Boston Marathon Bombing and the poisoned letters arriving at the offices of various senators and the White House.

Some how it felt especially good to offer the Practice to something greater than just myself. The beginning of this practice felt like what prayer should be ... and it felt good. Most prayer to me feels like a form of begging or negotiating with some old, wise man sitting in judgement, who exists outside of myself, and who controls what happens to me. I feel the most successful prayer, if I need to use that word, has to do with going inside myself having faith in knowing that the answers exist within. Today, I reached a new level of understanding about how I want to define prayer for myself.

In the part of the Practice where one deals with Emotions, Corinne suggested that instead avoiding letting the emotion distract from the meditation, we work with it.We should picture ourselves in front of a door with the emotion on the other side. When the door is opened, what form does the emotion take: a person, a feeling, a word, a place? Talk with the emotion. Spend some time with the emotion. What is it trying to say to you? What does it want to show you or have you learn? What do you want to say to the emotion?

For a lot of people, spending time with emotion is difficult. Confronting it, dealing with it, embracing it, is hard to do. For me, this time, much to my amazement my mother was on the other side of the door. She extended her arms and took me into her bosom. She told me that she knows how much sadness I hold in my heart and what a huge responsibility I have on my shoulders supporting Gregory through his difficulties with Alzheimer's Disease.  She asked me to let her help me carry my load and to support me. The experience was quite beautiful and reassuring.

This was the last Practice in this series of meetings. I have decided to take a month off and then look at joining the next session. I will miss the weekly "escapes" but can listen the recorded MP3's that Corinne sends us of each Practice if and when I need to. I owe her so much for the calm, tranquility, and lessons she has helped me work through using Yoga Nidra.

http://www.corinnepeterson.com