The Prayer Thread is a collection of teachings and practical prompts to help as we learn to pray in community. This text was originally delivered on February 21, 2024 as a short teaching at our online weekly prayer sit.
The first time I recall being “addressed” by an aspect of creation was when I was a cross country runner in junior high. There were times when the wind would pick up, blow across my face and seem to be encouraging me along. Later in high school, my family got “stuck” in a rustic cabin in the Black Hills while it rained for days. The weather seemed to teach me the value of rest and retreat. Again, later in college, a chickadee seemed to call out to me, “Yoo – hoo,” on an especially hard day.
For centuries, spiritual teachers have recognized that the “second” book of scriptures, through which God reveals and communicates Godself, is nature. While this ultimate truth is important in a big picture kind of way, the particularity of being addressed in a specific way, through a meaningful moment, is also important in an intimate way. For example, during college and the period afterwards, I lost a sense of intimacy with the Holy One as I let go of highly anthropomorphic images of God that I had come to treasure in childhood. The transition was difficult and long, as I learned how to recalibrate my prayer rhythms. Even though the loosening up and widening was ultimately a good thing, it was also lonely at times.
Potentially, any aspect of creation contains the seal of the Hand of the Holy One. Yet it is in the intimacy of the particular encounters, in the mystical moments full of meaning, that we can feel addressed in prayer through creation. With all of creation assisting as a conversation partner in the Holy One, the lens of lonely becomes much smaller.
