Prayer is for Holistic Strength

Prayer is not magic. Praying is strengthening, unifying, and liberating. Praying is life-talk, mission, the dance of revolution, … We cry for new life, nourishment, healing, action … Prayer is not individualistic. It’s not about special favors or any kind of favoritism. Praying is being communally present with the Communal Presence.

Monarch butterfly in backyard

Strengthening moments begin simply … a monarch butterfly photographed in our backyard on Dauphin Island, November 4, 2007.

I like to commune outside, in a space that is engaging and dynamic, filled with birds, trees, sky, various surprises, … “You-Are-Who-Are, Infinite Lover of All, Eternal Creating Spirit!”

Who am I? Where can I turn? Where is my strength, my center? I don’t want to be distracted, addicted, enslaved … I deeply want to Live being part of an Awesome Team! “Kumbaya to us, Your beloved, yearning Children, that we may keenly see and profoundly appreciate the needs, beauty, and gifts of each person and all creation!”

So much potential, but we often seem ensnared, paralyzed, powerless, … and so much of this is our own doing. I have done both good and evil. I am grateful and regretful. But all evil can be, will be, and has been overcome! “Merciful, Grateful Liberator, unshackle us from every hurt, injustice, doubt, anger, dishonesty, conceit, shame, and fear! Save us from every urge to do or return evil!”

My children and George Washington Carver have taught me that everything we need can be found in what we already have! We’ve been wondrously placed on this incredible, astonishing planet that has renewably nourished diverse life for billions of years. Without cost, the thirsty drink and hungry eat: free water, milk, bread, and the richest foods – all without costs (Isaiah)! “Look at the birds of the air, they neither sow nor reap, yet our Heavenly Father feeds them (Jesus)!” So why are we sowing and reaping such destruction upon the Earth! We! Who are we? God’s children? We must find and believe in our Collective Creative Strength! We must become part of the Great Giving! “We-Are-Who-Are, drench us with free and abundant nourishment found throughout creation and through diverse and wondrous persons!”

Much of “how-things-are” in our world, the world of our making, is shaped by injustice, dishonesty, fear, … We continue to hold each other in chains. But a renewing togetherness, generous and resourceful, is growing! “We-Can-Who-Can, rouse us to champion a wholly renewed world where nothing is wasted, every gift is shared, and every need filled!”

We, though wounded, together in all our diversity, together with the Healing Spirit, are the answer! We’re being counted upon! Our communal efforts and our inspired lives are the key to our Everyone’s Heaven and the key to our future and our children’s children’s children’s well-being and survival. “We-Will-Who-Will, heal us through shared words, play, and work so that we will come alive as one family filled with infinite joy, generosity, hope, understanding, creativity, openness, forgiveness, and love! Friend of All, our Imminent Victory, be our All in All, together for the benefit of All! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!”

Rote prayers, like the You-Are-Who-Are prayer (seen in orange above), are guides, jumping off points for the heart, mind, and actions. I try to start each morning with the Lord’s Prayer (the Lord’s Guide) followed by this You-Are-Who-Are guide. It generally takes 30 minutes to an hour. Often I don’t finish the rote words. What’s important is to join the Presence, be decisively encouraged, see the path to healing, …, and wholeheartedly live it!

A Garden of Life

Mixed up garden modeled after forest

My family has much to learn about gardening, but here’s our mixed up garden modeled somewhat after the forest which for eons has ably tended itself (June 5, 2012).

My family’s garden was prepared by chickens who scratched the ground and enriched the soil with their manure – no other fertilizer was used. Seeds were planted. New plants breathed in the air, drank water, absorbed minerals, and enriched the soil. Leaves from nearby trees provided mulch to slowdown weeds. Diverse plants grew together for mutual benefit. Chickens continued to come – mostly munching on bugs – no pesticides desired or needed. Bugs, as they have for millions of years, also make contributions to plants. The whole family pitches in. Through nature, work, and generosity; food is being created for humans, horse, chickens, bugs, mice, sparrows, bluebirds, cuckoos, lizards, and many more.

One day we hope that our horse will help us garden too, but for now she keeps the grass manageable, and her beauty and personality provides us with much enjoyment. Our cat and canaries enrich our lives as well. Before long we might even accept a dog into our fellowship (that dog would be our first).

In the last few years, particularly since the gulf oil spill in April 2010, but before then too, I have had growing concerns about the harms and dangers that pervade our lives. But more importantly, I have felt the call to embrace the incredible gifts that God wants to shower upon us always, renewable gifts that create real wealth for everyone. All this and more led my family to the country. Living in our new home in Deer Park, Alabama, we hope to become farmers working well with nature. We’ve had to reevaluate our priorities, how we live, and how we pray. By way of example, like the new berries and vegetables that feed my family, here is a prayer that I have composed and recently revised:

You-Are-Who-Are, Infinite Lover of All, Eternal Creating Spirit!

Kumbaya to us, Your beloved, yearning Children, that we may keenly see and profoundly appreciate the needs, beauty, and gifts of each person and all creation!

Merciful, Grateful Liberator, unshackle us from every hurt, injustice, doubt, anger, dishonesty, conceit, shame, and fear! Save us from every urge to do or return evil!

We-Are-Who-Are, drench us with free and abundant nourishment found throughout creation and through diverse and wondrous persons!

We-Can-Who-Can, rouse us to champion a wholly renewed world where nothing is wasted, every gift is shared, and every need filled!

We-Will-Who-Will, heal us through shared words, play, and work so that we will come alive as one family filled with infinite joy, generosity, hope, understanding, creativity, openness, forgiveness, and love!

Friend of All, our Imminent Victory, be our All in All, together for the benefit of All! Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!

[Blog with earlier version of this prayer]

Rosie in our happy garden

I’ve heard some farmers speak of happy gardens. Here’s Rosie, my wife, enjoying our garden (June 5, 2012).

A spring chicken, bugs, and the three sisters: corn, squash, and beans

A young spring chicken searches for bugs in our garden where in American Indian tradition we have planted corn, squash, and beans together, the “three sisters” (June 5, 2012). This diversity in the garden is good for moderating the bug population. Bugs in moderate numbers invigorate gardens – without bugs we would all likely die.

Vegetables from the garden

A good morning of garden picking: herbs, berries, tomatoes, okra, beans, cucumber, summer squash, and two varieties of mystery squashes (June 4, 2012). I should have picked corn, tomatillos, and greens to add to this picture.

These blueberries are lush this time of year. Here’s a brown thrasher who had just fed a bug to its new hatchlings (June 7, 2012).

These blueberries are lush this time of year. Here’s a brown thrasher who had just fed a bug to its new hatchlings (June 7, 2012).

Community

Tuesday evening, July 6, over 100 concerned people gathered to hear Dr. Riki Ott and Dr. J. Steven Picou. Dr. Riki Ott has played a pivotal role throughout the Exxon Valdez disaster and Dr. J. Steven Picou has had extensive onsite research experience with the Exxon Valdez disaster. They spoke of what has happened and is still happening in Alaska, how it relates to the gulf disaster, and what we can expect. “Maximum community disruption,” “post traumatic stress disorder,” massive “loss of community capital,” people seeking “escape” and “isolation,” “suicide,” “economic loss spirals,” communities that have gone “corrosive,” “friends who drink too much” because of the disaster, “divorce,” “corrosive families,” “holes in the ecosystem,” “desperation,” “persistent pollutants,” serious and widespread “health problems,” “reluctant resignation,” … They had our undivided attention.

Dr. Riki Ott. and Dr. J. Steven Picou exchanging notes before their presentation

Dr. Riki Ott. and Dr. J. Steven Picou exchanging notes before their presentation, photographed July 6, 2010 by Dawn McKinney

Part of the concerned audience behind me, photographed July 6, 2010

Part of the concerned audience behind me, photographed July 6, 2010

For me and surely most present it was much more than information overload. The emotional content was even more powerful. Even with the very academic approach, the tears from the audience began to flow especially from mothers worried about their children and the future.

Dr. Riki Ott and Dr. J. Steven Picou spoke of how we can change our future too. Move beyond the “warning,” “threat,” “impact,” “blame” cycle to the “mutual assistance,” “charitable action,” “commercial cooperation,” “entrepreneur leadership” cycle to leverage our own immense “experience” and “resources.” Use “collective common sense,” give “hugs not shrugs,” “maintain families,” “rise up,” “be leaders,” “choose … to live … and get control of the tiller,” “your power is from the community … the people … from the bottom up,” “speak as a community,” “have your cry, get through it, and make a plan.”

The following morning I sat up in bed and cried too. Sorrowfully I thought of our natural surroundings and our communities. I saw how we get distracted so easily and make ourselves nearly powerless by dividing ourselves with all kinds of respectable labels: liberal and conservative, rich and poor, this religion versus that religion or denomination, republican and democrat, … Sorrowfully I looked at our bubbles and walls, the illusions of success, comfort, … It’s quite strange how we seemed to need the Deepwater Horizons wake-up call to see the human and natural disasters around us and involving us.

So what’s the plan, the prayer, the dream, …? Listen to the calls within you to hold suffering people, to hold families together, to hold birds and fish too, … Despite all the bad news, together we have an incredibly positive future ahead of us, a future far better than our past. Let me share this prayer with you. I look at each line as springboard for conversing with God, our All in All, and as springboard for my actions and hopes for the day. Let the wind blow where it will.

You-Are-Who-Are, Infinite Lover of All, Eternal Creating Spirit!
Kumbaya to us, Your beloved children.
Live fully in each of us and be our All in All in each moment.

Inspire us to confidently ask for and seek all that we need
trusting day by day that Your abundant help can be found in many diverse places and persons.
Inspire us also to profoundly appreciate the needs, beauty, and gifts of each person.

Liberate us from every attachment, anger, dishonesty, conceit, and fear;
save us from every desire to do or return evil;
and guide us into Your boundless patience, hope, understanding, forgiveness, and love;
for we yearn and ask to be healed and to live fully like You and with You for the benefit of all.

Thank You, God.

[This prayer has been updated here.]