Plant seed. Water. Weed. Wait. Boom, bloom!

You’ve heard of Build-A-Bear? I’m offering Invent-a-Prayer. It goes like this. You’re chugging along, lower than whale poop. You’re exercising, meditating, staying out of unhealthy foods, etc, cuz you’ve had a number of losses, the latest of which was your job, and you need to keep on keepin’ on. Dig your way out and so on.

Did I mention you’re so far down you’re forgetting what up looks like and you don’t even care that you’re kind of of whiney and self-pitying? So you’re trudging along, and you throw in some teeny-tiny meditations because that’s all you can sit still for. And you talk to a few select folks who have more tolerance for you than you have for yourself.

Then, weeks and weeks in, bingo! A prayer begins to pray itself. This is the one that came to me yesterday morning: Bless my gifts to your service. Then along comes, Bless my heart to your service. Then, today, Bless my work to your service.

Well bless my soul! Someone once said that spiritual experiences are accidents and it’s our job to make ourselves accident-prone. See?
All that trudging along, and along comes my very own perfect little out-of-work mantra-prayer.

Result: I’ve done—and noted on my little list of what’s-so-great-about-Gay—some cool things today to bring messages of healing and hope to people just like me who are suffering, mostly just by listening and being present. And my heart is full.