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A Prayer for Uncertain Times

May I act with compassion,
remembering the irreplaceable value
of the threads of human connection.
May I maintain a spirit of curiosity,
generosity, and creativity.
May I extend a hand when needed
and retreat when necessary.
May I exercise wise discernment.
May I remember to step outside
under a wide sky.
May I sweep my arms up and open
and then bring them down,
palms to the earth,
feeling the steady thrum of life
weaving the whole.
Placing one hand on my heart
and one on my belly,
may I be inspired, nourished, and restored
by this matching pulse within.
May I allow myself to pause
and witness the tender terrain
of uncertainty
and choose to inhabit it fully,
allowing not knowing, maybe, and if
to drift around me on the winds
of change,
while I take
another step
on solid ground.

Goddess of the untamed shore
smooth my edges into gratitude,
tumble me into letting go,
teach me what it means
to let my longings
ebb and flow.
Roll me until my to-do list
becomes rubble
and my bindings become loosened
by the touch of salt and time.
Carve me back to my
most essential self,
erode my need to know
until it is replaced
by space
around my heart
to grow.
Sweep over me
and leave me expansive and free,
help me to remember
to wait for nothing
while somehow also being
as patient as the moon.
Encourage me to
chart my own course
and steer my own craft,
trusting the transformations wrought
by truth and trust and tide.

May I be inspired.
May I be grateful.
May I walk in ease
and devotion.

As I have noted several times here on this blog, this June I fell and hurt my ankle, which confined me to flat surfaces and my back deck instead of the long walks on the road and through the woods that I so enjoy and find so nourishing of my creativity and spirituality. In my time on the deck, I started to ponder devotion and building devotional practices and from those contemplations the Goddess Devotional prayerbook was born. My family jokes that I fell down and when I got back up, I’d written a book. This was a surprise project for me this year, not something I expected to create, and I’m really pleased with it.

Free pdf version and a collection of additional resources is available here. 

"The winter solstice happens in nature around us.  But it also happens inside of us, in our souls.  It can happen inside of us is summer or winter, spring or fall.   In the dark place of our soul, we carry secret wishes, pains, frustrations, loneliness, fears, regrets, worries.  Darkness is not something to be afraid of.  Sometimes we go to the dark place of our soul, where we can find safety and comfort.  In the dark place in our soul we can find rest and rejuvenation.  In the dark place of our soul we can find balance.  And when we have rested, and been comforted, and restored, we can return from the dark place in our soul to the world of light and new possibilities."

Och, I keep screwing up the prayers. I keep forgetting that it's Winter now.

Temple worship has its own style, like set prayers. But even set prayers don't always stay the same.

Red Coat crowned with antler

(in winter: blue)

that sit cross-legged in the Mother's heart

(or: womb),

to you, to you, my Stag,

I make my prayer.

For all that I write about money, I've never summarized how I work with it, in a religious sense.  In part that's because I only set up a formal money shrine recently, and having that around has caused me to step up my game.  Here's a snapshot of my money practice as of today.  I'm actually hoping that I will come back and read this in a few years and be amazed by it.  Who knows, maybe this will chronicle practices that I will forget, and then reconstruct based upon my own ancient writings!

But even if the internet archaeologists don't find it interesting, I hope some readers will.