This Week's Prayer

We are held in relationships of belonging and dependence extending throughout the cosmos.

Let us practice at living.

Let us be in denial about nothing.

For there is no story, no picture or poem or movie or news account, that can be depressing in itself.

Reality is never depressing.

To call it depressing is to say that we were preferring to be in denial about some part of the wholeness of what life is – and are disappointed to be reminded of what we had denied.

Let us be in denial about nothing.

Let us be in full awareness at all times of the world’s suffering, for connecting with the world’s suffering allows us to connect with our own.

Indeed, the world’s suffering IS our own.

Let us be in denial about nothing, but open to all the fullness of life, for beauty and tragedy are interdependent, and joy entails connection with everything – laughter and tears, birth and death, wounding and healing – constant and continuous connection with everything.

May we laugh, not to forget our tears, but to remember them, and arrive at a fuller and wiser laughter.

May we celebrate, not to forget our grief, but to remember it, and arrive at a more thorough celebration.

May we be comforted, not to forget our and the world’s afflictions, but to remember them, and be more deeply comforted.

And from that memory, may we move toward living in compassion, caring for others, serving freedom, peace, and justice.

In denial about nothing, in touch with all heartache and anguish everywhere, compassionately serving, we will arrive at an ever truer and more enduring gladness.