Dear Ones, it’s been a tough week.
Today I am reminded that sometimes words aren’t enough or even what we need. So, today I offer two things to help sustain us for the days to come.
The first is the prayer from last Sunday’s service, written by Unitarian Universalist minister Leslie Takahashi, titled “Prayer for When Words Fail.”
The second is music. Maybe you’ve already seen the video of the street musicians who play Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” for the gathering crowd. I invite you to take 5 minutes to watch it again and especially look at people’s faces. Notice the wonder and delight, the joy at what people can create when they come together. It makes me smile to know that we will make music together again before too long.
Never underestimate the power of music. And, if you’d like more, join Troy Fisher this evening for the Thursday evening spiritual practice at 7 pm on Zoom. You can find the meeting information here (link).
Today, may you feel empowered to step back, take a breath, call on the inspiration of others, and share it with those you love.
Blessing on your week,
Rev. Mary
Minister@ouuc.org
“Prayer for When Words Fail” by Rev. Leslie Takahashi
This is a prayer for when words fail, for when they are not big enough or small enough to slip into the little cracks left in our hearts by life’s unbearable pressures.
This is a prayer for when the biggest noun cannot know the enormity of joy, or when the most active verb is paralyzed in the face of grief unuttered, horror undescribed, or loss beyond accounting.
This is a prayer for when words, precious emblems though they are, cannot take into their embrace the hugeness of experience or the expanse of indebtedness or the many tangles of complexity and confusion.
This is a prayer for when we must sit with our breath, kneading the small truths we can touch as if they were therapy for our restless hands. This is a prayer for all who have known the large void of hope which is trauma.
This is a prayer for wounded hearts and bodies, for those whom we ought to always remember and sometimes choose to forget.
This is a prayer that begins with gratitude for what we can understand and know, and ends with humility which reminds us that not all is ours to do.
This is a prayer for those times when words fail and all is left is the “yes” and the “no” of it all, and our ability to let the cord of the breath lead us from this moment to the next.
This is a prayer for all who have been lost that in our memory, they might be found.
May we be the ones to make it so.
A Little Girl Gives A Coin To A Street Musician And Gets The Best Surprise In Return.