Prayer For The Fallen

Creator, maker of all that is,
wrap me in a cocoon of your love,
rock me to sleep in the cradle of your spirit.

Be the mother of me,
the womb from which I was born,
the breast from which I was fed,
the arms within which I was held
while I slept unscripted
in the holy silence of a newborn.

Nightly, you anoint me as your own,
no matter how far I have fallen,
and I give thanks for this wayward path
that has led me to your door.

Forgive my blinded eyes
when I do not see;
forgive my deafened ears
when I do not hear;
forgive my hardened heart
when I do not feel.

Little by little, I am learning
how to offer up this broken life to you,
trusting in your mercy, however fierce or gentle,
to catch me falling again, but this time, into love.

---

© Nick LeForce
All Rights reserved

Please share your thoughts and comments below.

I was not raised in any religion. I never received instructions for prayer. I have been influenced by popular culture such as the images of those kneeling down with hands pressed together and eyes lifted to heaven, like in a Norman Rockwell painting.  I have read some treatises on the subject. Gregg Braden's Secrets Of The Lost Mode Of Prayer is one of my favorites. I learned some forms of "prayer" used by Native Americans and by the Inka Shamans. I stole the opening line of this poem, "Creator, maker of all that is..." from my Shaman teachers.

I seem to have developed a form that includes: 1. shake off what I don't need; 2. ground and center myself; 3. Call in or invoke spirit; 4. speak my "prayer" from my heart. I do have some rote lines, which I often repeat, and then vary content based on the moment. I usually do this standing.

Do you pray? If so, how do you pray?
What makes prayer different than self-talk?
Or different than wishing?