Small stone, day 17

Seven people talk about cancer. Vulnerability encircles the table. Much to say.  Much to feel.  Much to remember.  Much exhaustion.  Much in the deepest places left unspoken where hope must do its work.  

Praying today:  For those who are terminally ill and those who accompany them....past and present.

Small stone, day 16

18 degrees.  Leaves snap underfoot.  The rooster's crow creaks to a close.  Gloved fingers go numb anyway. I stand aside, pull the dog's leash tight as pick-ups rush by for warmer destinations.


Praying today:  Thanksgiving for courageous people like Martin Luther King, Jr.

Small stone, day15

The guitar picked up with ease, the mellow voice leading, the growing swell of people following, and I am no longer pastor, just any human, singing a slow prayer in my corner and marveling at gentle grace.

Praying today: For all musicians who lead us to pray.

Small stones, days 13 and 14

Pale and soft yarns flows through my fingers,
in and out, back and forth, 
while I imagine the one for whom I make this
being woven by Another, cell after delicate cell,
in the depths of the mother's womb.


Praying yesterday:  For grandbaby and parents as they grow in hidden and not so hidden ways.

The sycamore has slowly being undoing itself;  this morning I see yet another limb has been cast off.  It lies half submerged in the water with its gnarly hands and fingers grasping the creek bank like bleached bones.


Praying today:  What things do I need to cast off in order to be the person God has made for today?   (I could start by forgoing that stupid computer game :-/ )

Small stone, day 12

I know this small stone is late.  I was too tired to write about it  ("it" being a moment when I try to be fully present/observant to what's around me) when I got home last night from Prayer around the Cross.

Murmurs in the hall, heels on stone, fingers exercising empty euphonium valves, rustling into pews, cough, guitar whispering that strange chord again, cough, overhead jet coming in for a landing, cough again, and then suddenly everything settles into a few seconds of deep communal  silence.  We begin...

Praying this day:  For healing in people, in the world.

Small stone, day 11

Eleventh small stone, 20 to go:

At dawn the sinking moon and I 
are walking past a grove of trees---
she on one side, I on the other, 
silent companions watching 
through the tangle of black limbs.

Praying today for the places I will go before the moon rises again.

(Check this site to find out about January's 2012 "River of Stones" of which these small stone posts are a part.)

Small stone, day 10

Tenth small stone, 21 to go.   (Check this site to find out about January's 2012 "River of Stones" of which these small stone posts are a part.)

The cold morning air

bears the sharp scent

of the absence of growing.

Praying today: For new life, creativity and enthusiasm.