My Angel's Whispers... a Conversation

Gentle Thoughts

When prayer is requested for those in need, all hearts open.

We reach out to Heaven, having faith that we are heard, that our prayers will be answered.

There is celebration and gratitude when healing takes place.... but when someone we love leaves this life despite all the open hearts and sincere prayers offered without ceasing... does it mean our prayers were not heard or answered?

Of course not.

It simply means that we cannot always know where the path of another will take them....or when.

I have come to believe that prayer is the vehicle for love to travel, to surround and to hold someone in need.  Love is a force beyond our understanding.  Love is God.   So in our prayers we offer ourselves to be God's hands, God's embrace, God's protection, God's love... human to human.

We love despite the answer.   We love when we have nothing more to offer.  We love when life is restored and we love when life as we have come to cherish it, transitions into the wonder that comes after.  We love and we trust.

So on those days when you ask for prayer for a specific outcome... my heart joins with yours in a request that asks only that we understand and continue to have faith, and to love even  if the answer fills us with despair. 

When prayer is answered and everyone breathes that sigh of relief saying, "God is good", remember that we have free will and choice.  And if it appears that our prayers were not answered, God is still good !

As I have said so many times before, no one has ever prayed as hard as I did on May 1, 1998.  I begged God to save my Shannon.   I begged Shannon not to go.  I have no idea how many prayers were offered along with mine but I'm sure I was not alone.

We can't lose faith when our hearts are broken...that is when it means the most.  We must not blame love for the pain we suffer.  We cannot give up on prayer.  We simply trust that life is forever and prayer gives us a place to lay when we can no longer stand.

Prayers are always answered.  Love is always and forever abundant.  Death will come and we won't always understand but prayers are never wasted.  Prayers wrap us in love and keep us safe until we are able to stand again.

Prayer for the Thrashers

I have been known to think too much...then again, there are days when I have sheets in the washer, cats on the deck, dishes in the sink, vacuum in one room, journal and pen in another, camera on the tripod by the door...and I'm sitting at the computer trying to have even one meaningful thought.

Recently life started to feel overwhelming.  Not in my normal everyday overwhelming way but in the way that says "Help but don't judge." "Be there but don't have an opinion."  "Do what you can without overstepping your bounds."  "Release your damnable need for control !"

Worry creeps in silently.  You might not realize the effects it is having until you have gained five pounds, tossed and turned the sheets right off the bed, gone through a whole tube of concealer while debating whether on not it's time to order the ProActive Solution, and recognize that your thoughts are on a time loop continuum that is not only exhausting but totally non productive.

So... as I am so prone to do... I bought a book. My answer to everything, knowing that there is at least one other human being who has found themselves thrashing around in life long enough not only to happen on a solution but write and publish for the rest of us. 

Today's  selection, " The Way of Serenity " by Father Jonathan Morris. 

Knowing that I may never get it read from cover to cover, I skipped to the end and there on page 225 I found the words that I have now printed and posted on the bathroom mirror and here for the rest of you thrashers who might not ever get around to reading the book either.

Heavenly Father,

You know I want to do the right thing.  You know I want to love as you love, to serve as you serve.  You know, too, that there are people in my life who I find hard to love.  I ask you to give me a heart like yours so that, beginning today, I will put people ~ above all things, especially above those things that get in the way of loving others as you love me.

Amen

I'm not sure, but I'm thinking that if I can manage to get even remotely close to receiving the grace to love as God loves, control and judgement... not to mention, opinions...won't matter so much.

So as I head back to the dishes, the cats and the vacuum... I have, at least for the moment, stopped thrashing and my focus is, at least for the moment on love ... and that gorgeous day unfolding just for me.

(....and all of you !)