I pray for the world to find me in its own wise way.
I pray to be wanted and needed by those I have learned to love
And those I must learn to love.
When I was ten, we moved away from family to a new state, a small town, and we became strangers in a strange land. We had funny accents. We had homemade clothes. We were not easily included or accepted. I wanted to belong. An awareness arose from this lonely, stressful time. Not being invited, I realized the importance of inviting. Not being included, I realized the importance of including. Not belonging, I realized the importance of belonging. My prayers at this young age were simple. “Help me find a friend. Help me know how to be a friend to others.” “I pray for the world to find me in its own wise way.” The wise world found me. God found me; not by providing a friend right away, as I had requested; but found me as I walked through this loneliness. This is where I found solace and a growing awareness or deepness of how I wanted to be.
Rambling is still my default form of prayer. Some might say I don’t pray at all as I usually don’t form words or intentions. But to me, it is the opposite; I feel like I never stop praying! When I walk, I often pause my steps and stay in a spot to think of others or to sit with a problem. Then I walk some more. The intention I carry is, be aware with my senses.
I listen. I look. I rejoice in small things. God speaks to me so strongly with this kind of rambling awareness. Song phrases will bubble up. A memory of a friend who I have not spoken to in a long time. An opportunity that awaits my decision may present itself.
I find myself accompanied by a strong sense of gratitude with each step I take.
I realize now these walks of the last 60 plus years are a form of contemplation. The awareness I practice there sticks with me throughout the day. I may be somewhere, and my heart gets zinged with something. I try to pay attention, then follow its path.
I see prayer as invitation. As God reaching out, inviting me to take notice, to take part, and if able, to immerse, to dwell.
Marcia Good is a Dominican Associate and gifted musician. She also loves poems. The stanza at the beginning of her essay is from David Whyte’s “Prayer for an Invitation”. Her essay comes with an open invitation to find and read the rest of David Whyte’s poem. May you, may each of us, pray for the world to find us in its own wise way.
