Prayer by Ted Loder from his book Guerillas of Grace:
O God of all seasons and senses,
to submit gracefully
and rejoice quietly
in the turn of the seasons.
of grey and white and cold,
teach me the lessons of waiting:
of the snow joining the mystery
of the hunkered-down seeds
growing in their sleep
watched over by gnarled-limbed, grandparent trees
resting from autumn’s staggering energy;
of the silent, whirling earth
circling to race back home to the sun.
O God, grant me your sense of timing.
In this season of short days and long nights,
of grey and white and cold,
teach me the lessons of endings:
children growing
friends leaving
jobs concluding
stages finishing
grieving over
grudges over
blaming over
excuses over.
O God, grant me your sense of timing.
In this season of short days and long nights,
of grey and white and cold, teach me the lessons of beginnings:
that such waitings and endings
may be a starting place,of planting seeds which bring to birth
what is ready to be born—something right and just and different,
a new song, a deeper relationship,
a fuller lover— in the fullness of your time.
O God, grant me your sense of timing.
