Prayers

Facebook: My New Prayerbook

Facebook is becoming the face of the nation...and of much of the world. About 1 billion people are now active users, with half a billion posting each day. On the one hand, Facebook is a blessing. We can share parts of our lives with friends and loved ones around the world: a photo of an exuberant child enjoying a day with grandma,  the latest video of your dog at the park, or a picture of your latest culinary masterpiece that makes every reader's mouth water. I am grateful for the ability to stay so immediately connected with what is happening in the lives of people far and near.

And yet, there is a downside because Facebook is also an addictive ego trip consuming countless hours of our lives. I've been listen to my own internal dialog as I browse through posts. Here's some of what I hear within:

  • Wow! Look at how many people liked my post...they like me, they really like me!
  • Hmmmm, I wonder why no one commented on or shared my post? Did I say something offensive or was it just not that interesting?
  • He needs a filter. That was way too much information.
  • I'm doing or looking fantastic/pathetic in comparison to....
  • I can't believe the ignorance of these people I've known since elementary school.

My internal chatter sounds like the din of a middle school cafeteria. My little ego wants recognition, approval, and to be proved right and superior. And Facebook is the perfect venue for my ego to play out its addictive games in pursuit of those pusillanimous yet very human drives.

This morning I brought my Facebook experience into my prayer/meditation time. I let go of all that was arising for me: my desire to be approved as evidenced by people liking and sharing my posts, my comparison of myself to others on Facebook, and my anger about what I perceive to be narrow-minded, closed-hearted posts from people I grew up with.

Over and over again, I acknowledged, owned up to, accepted and then released these ego trips into the divine spaciousness within. As I did a realization arose. Facebook had become my prayerbook. I then prayed for my loved ones and for those childhood friends whose posts had offended me. I prayed for our country and our world in light of both the beauty and the ignorance I had seen on Facebook. I prayed for my own beauty to be revealed and my own ignorance to be lifted. And then I let go; I let go of my needs, my self-righteousness, and of Facebook itself and experienced a deep peace, freedom and wholeness.

I intend to return to Facebook with a different posture. While I'll still share and read and like and post, I'll also use it as my book of prayers for all the faces behind those electronic posts. I'll use it as a mirror to reflect those patterns within myself that I will bring to my meditation and prayer time for healing and release. And, of course, I'll take it less seriously. After all, it's just an online middle school cafeteria. Might as well have some laughs, spend fewer minutes there, and move on.

Oh, and even though I know Facebook is just a glorified middle school cafeteria, I still hope you'll like and share my post. Everyone else is doing it.

P.S. Please join us for the new series of day retreats I'll be leading this fall, and/or spread the word to those you think might be interested. Details are on the Classes page. Thank you!

Journeying God

Journeying god,pitch your tent with mine so that I may not become deterred by hardship, strangeness, doubt. Show me the movement I must make toward a wealth not dependent on possessions, toward a wisdom not based on books, toward a strength not bolstered by might, toward a god not confined to heaven. Help me to find myself as I walk in other's shoes.

(Prayer song from Ghana, traditional, translator unknown)

"Prayer for the Earth" by Scott Quinn

(Have a candle and match, dirt or a rock, water in a bowl, and a feather or incense.)

We pray for our planet.

We look East and remember the air.

(Face east and wave the feather or light the incense.)

Without air there is no breath.

Without breath there is no life.

All existence is giving and receiving,

Respirations of taking, metabolizing, and giving back.

May we guard against the held breath of over-consumption.

May the inhale of wisdom precede every exhale of material progress.

May we inhale hope, renewal and imagination.

May we exhale a simpler lifestyle that lets the planet breathe freely.

 

We look South and remember fire.

(Face south and light the candle.)

Fire illuminates and warms.

It also incinerates and disfigures.

Fire reminds us to act judiciously and in moderation,

May we burn with unquenchable love for our planet.

May we rekindle compassion for all living things.

May we learn to restrain our blazing lust for more

Until we reignite the consciousness that all which we need is already present.

 

We look West and remember water.

(Face west and hold the bowl of water.)

Our bodies are mostly water.

The planet is mostly water.

That makes us kin.

Our mutual family treasure is the water that sustains us.

May we bathe ourselves in the knowledge that everything is interconnected and interdependent.

May we be baptized into a planetary family committed to clean water.

May we conserve and reclaim the pure flowing waters as our heritage and responsibility.

May every drink of water fill us with gratitude for the gift of life itself.

 

We look North and remember the earth.

(Face north and hold a rock or piece of dirt.)

From the dust we came

And return to it, we must.

This is the only certainty of life.

May we recall that we are but dust,

That the earth does not derive from us; we derive from the earth.

Thou shalt honor Mother Earth so you may live long on the Earth.

What affects her affects us all.

May we change our self-image from masters to caretakers,

From feudal lords to children filled with awe,

Until we once again live in harmony with the ground that has birthed us.

 

Air, fire, water and earth,

May we honor, protect, and live with you in peace.

We pray for you.

We are you.

Amen.