Dear God,
This week is a doozey.
If anxiety produced a sound, it would be deafening right now.
Open my ears to the sounds I need most: the wild geese overhead, Aretha Franklin’s Amazing Grace (1972); the sound of my friend on the other end of the phone; the sugar-high laughter of children who need us to dial down the doom.
If fear could be seen, it would be obscuring everything else.
Open my eyes to the sights that I need most: my puppy underfoot with a toy in her mouth, ready to play; the brightening of my neighbor’s eyes under their mask when I pass them in the stairwell; that sidewalk covered in an oak tree’s fallen leaves like nature’s confetti.
If sorrow could be tasted, the bitterness would overcome me.
Open my mouth to the sweetness I need: words of kindness; deep, unhurried kisses; and absolutely as much Ben and Jerry’s as I deem necessary.
Help me remember that you are in the other side of Tuesday, no matter what.
Amen.
— Shared from the Sunday Prayers of The Corners by Nadia Bolz-Weber.