Prayer is another one of those words so badly used in public discourse that I questioned whether I should even allow it in the title of this blog. How many people will just scroll by because “prayer?”

Is prayer just a list of things that I want, issued on my knees to some divine Santa Claus? Is prayer what I invoke when bad things happen and I’d rather not be bothered with the deeper questions of what it means to be human? There are times of deep desperation when we are so lost, so empty of possibility that calling out to the open sky the thing or things we need to survive is a powerful form of prayer. We can exhaust ourselves trying to make sense of the meaning of things and come to a place of utter unknowing, utter reaching out from our exhaustion and asking the great Unknown if there is anything at all to help us. And that is a life changing kind of prayer. 

But, what if most days, prayer is something else? Not a list. Not a cop out. 

“To pray is to open your whole self

To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon

To one whole voice that is you. 

And know there is more 

That you can’t see, can’t hear . . . 

So poet Joy Harjo opens her poem, “Eagle Poem.”  That first line!

To pray is to open your whole self.

To pray is to open you.

To pray is to open.

I’ve been following her lead, and I’m discoveringing that if I find a spot to sit and be still and quietly begin to open myself . . . there are so many manifestations of Life waiting for me. Harjo suggests starting places. I can open to the sky. To the earth. To the sun. To the moon. 

But also, trees. Birds singing. My spouse. My dog. To clouds. To stones on the ground. To squirrels racing through the trees. To the cashier at the grocery store. To the neighbor walking her dog. And to my feelings!  They are all there, just waiting for me to open myself to them and see what they bring. 

I never leave one of these episodes of opening feeling needy or desperate. In fact, I don’t leave this kind of prayer at all. It opens me, and I move through the rest of the day feeling like I’ve discovered more life than I ever knew possible. And, it’s all there waiting for me the next day. To open. 

To pray is to open.