Answered Prayers

God answers sharp and sudden on some prayers, And thrusts the thing we have prayed for in our face, a gauntlet with a gift in "it."

-ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Oscar Wilde believed that there were only two tragedies in life: not getting what you pray for and getting it.

"Answered prayers are scary," Julia Cameron admits in The Artist's Way. "They imply responsibility. You asked for it. Now that you've got it, what are you going to do? Why else the cautionary phrase 'Watch out for what you pray for; you just might get it'? Answered prayers deliver us back to our own hand. This is not comfortable."

Very often the reason we're uncomfortable is because we've not been praying for the right thing, and on some deep level we know it. We pray to meet our soul mate, instead of praying for the grace to become the person our soul mate would be attracted to; we pray for worldly success when what we really long for is a sense of authentic accomplishment; we pray for more money, when what we need is a change in our relationship to money. We pray for a certain outcome in any given situation, when what we should be praying for is peace of mind, no matter which outcome occurs.

Actually, our prayers are always being answered. We just don't like to think that "no" is a reasonable response to our very reasonable requests. Writer Madeleine L'Engle admits, in The Irrational Season-surely speaking for us all-"We don't like Noes; and sometimes we like the Noes of God less than any other No."

The "noes" of Spirit are more of a Holy Mystery than the "yeses"; more meaningful to meditate upon, after the tears, the fury, and the cursing sub¬side. The "Noes" of God don't make sense to our conscious, rational mind, especially since we're convinced we know what's best. But, do we? Really? We want the "yes," but sometimes we need the "no." Consider the disaster that would ensue if we answered a child's every request with a "yes.". That's too frightening even to contemplate. But we're children of Divinity.

We can't begin to envision the big picture; nor do we weigh our requests against the prayers of others. Spirit hears both the hopeful entreaties for a sunny family reunion picnic and the farmer's plea for rain.

You would be astounded at the relief that comes once you stop assuming you have all the answers.

When your prayers seem delayed or denied, you need to ask Spirit if you're praying for the right thing. If you're not, ask that the right prayer might be revealed to you. Very often when we're told "No," it's to allow us more time, space, wisdom, and experience to prepare for the glorious moment when, because you're finally ready, willing, and able, Spirit answers you with a sharp, sudden, and resounding "Yes!"

The Gaps

By Sarah Ban Breathnach

Where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that I am right, is there not some reason to hear I maybe wrong?
-JANE AUSTEN

It's difficult for me to write about faith without also writing about doubt.

I'd love to write a meditation on the comfort of absolute faith, the faith of Abraham walking in the desert with his beautiful little boy, Isaac, on their way to make a burnt offering to God.

They have the fire, they have the wood. But where is the lamb? Isaac asks his father. God will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, Abraham tells the son he prayed seven decades for.

Of course, this being a story about absolute faith, God does provide. After an altar is built, the wood is arranged, the child is bound, and the knife is unsheathed, an angel intervenes. God provides.

Faith breaks a heart in order to make it Whole. But I can't write about the comfort of an absolute faith like Abraham's because you'd never have found me walking in the desert with fire, wood, my child, and no lamb.

For Abraham, there were no gaping black holes of doubt. Or were there?

Not even as he held the knife aloft? Once a friend told me of a conversation she'd had with another mutual friend on God, faith, and doubt. In passing, she mentioned that they both wished that they possessed my faith.

I have no recollection of the rest of the conversation.

I do recall, however, my need to hang up the phone, shocked that anyone should believe my fragile faith worth emulating.

Annie Dillard tells that the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel was wary of those who hadn't floundered in the gaps before finding their way back across deserts of the heart. "The gaps are the thing," she points out. "The gaps are the spirit's one home, the altitudes and latitudes so dazzlingly spare and clean that the spirit can discover itself for the first time like a once blind man unbound." I hope to God she's right.

For perhaps the gaps are what make faith possible, especially when the pain is unbearable. If there were no doubt, why would we need faith? Perhaps the doubts must be acknowledged, accepted, embraced, and pushed past before our faith is strong enough, not just to talk about, but to sustain.

It's okay if you hold your breath when you leap. Just don't look down.

"Faith is not being sure. It is not being sure, but betting with your last
cent," Mary Jean Irion reassures us in Yes, World. "Faith is not making religious-sounding noises in the daytime. It is asking your innermost self questions at night-and then getting up and going to work."

Source: Simple Abundance - A Daybook of Comfort & Joy

Divine Discontent: Learning to Live by Your Own Lights

Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness. . . . Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: "You are accepted."
-PAUL JOHANNES TILUCH

When we practice switching on the "spiritual electricity" that Julia Cameron speaks of in her wonderful book, The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path To Inner Creativity, what should we expect?

More energy and inspiration, amazing and delightful coincidences, and the ability to accomplish goals with grace?

Yes, certainly. That has, at least, been my experience.

But one thing you might not expect-one thing that might throw you is how dissatisfied you may feel when the Power is not present, when you are in the dark and left to your own devices because you forgot to turn the switch on.

I have learned that asking is the only way to activate spiritual electricity. It is always there for me, but I always have to ask for it.

The dissatisfaction you can feel when the switch is off manifests itself in different ways. Suddenly you don't like any room in your house.

Decorating mistakes from past lives haunt you. Your clothes don't fit or look right on you anymore. You're bored with the meals you're cooking.

You're sick of opening the front hall closet and covering your head. But worse, that expansive, even giddy hopefulness that came from starting to integrate gratitude into your life gives way to restless discontent.

You begin to think that the Simple Abundance path might work for some women, but it's not right for you. Hold on. As the English historian Dame Cicely Veronica Wedgwood points out, "Discontent and disorder [are] signs of energy and hope, not of despair."

What is going on is part of the process.

I call it Divine Discontent.

It is the grit in the oyster before the pearl.

This creative second chance is when we come into our own.

When we finally claim our own lives and wrestle our futures from fate.

When we learn how to spin straw into gold.

When we realize gratefully that we can live by our own lights if we access the Power.

Ask for it. Claim it. Today.

Remaking Your Own World

I have made my world and it is a much better world than I ever saw outside.

-LOUISE NEVELSON


Many creation myths say it took only six days to make the world. It will take us a little longer to remake our own. But we can begin where Spirit did by declaring that there be Light to illuminate our journey of self-discovery.

The Quaker tradition teaches that this Light is within each of us. The Quakers, or members of the Religious Society of Friends, are a perfect example of individuals who manage the delicate balance of living in the world but not belonging to it. This is because they refuse to segment their lives into the Sacred and the secular.

Instead, Quakers believe that all of life's daily experiences are spiritual in nature, from preparing a family meal to protesting political policy. The British writer George Gorman has observed that "the essence of Quaker spirituality is the certainty that everything we do has religious significance. It is not cutting ourselves off from life but entering deeply and fully into it."

Simplicity is the common thread that stitches together Quaker lives, homes, and dress. Their weekly worship service, or Meeting, is a silent meditation. Rhythm, reverence, and reflection are their hallmarks. These touchstones can help us as well as we attempt to remake our personal world.

Restoring a sense of rhythm to our lives is the first step. How much rhythm do you have in your personal world? Children are not the only ones who need regular bedtimes, mealtimes, and quiet times. Their mothers do, too. Think of the steady, reassuring rhythm of the natural world-the ebb and flow of the tides, the recurring cycle of the four seasons, the monthly phases of the moon, and the daily progression from day into night. Rhythm needs to be the cornerstone in our personal world as well. All of us lead busy lives, some more frantic and frazzled than others. We need to learn where to draw the line and how to say "no."

Today be willing to reflect quietly on the role that rhythm plays in your daily life. Your heart will always tell you what's working and what's not. Restoring rhythm to the way you conduct your affairs can bring you contentment and a sense of well-being that will nurture and sustain you when the cares of the world can't be left behind.

Source: Simple Abundance

Big Dreams Do Come True: The Golden Mirror Meditation

For years I have used a special meditation I call the golden mirror meditation. I visualize in my mind an enormous mirror the size of a room, with an elaborately carved, 24-karat gold frame. This is my materializing mirror. Those dreams I wish to materialize in my life are first viewed here.

Now let me share with you an amazing coincidence that a French proverb would suggest is "God's way of remaining anonymous." After I had been doing the golden mirror meditation for about a year, I was invited on an all-expenses-paid business trip to Dublin, one of my favorite cities. I was to stay at one of Dublin's oldest, most beautiful, and expensive hotels, the Shelbourne, where I had never been before. When I arrived at the hotel and walked into the lounge, what should I see but the physical manifestation of my daily meditation: a beautiful mirror with a gold-leaf frame that was so large it took up an entire wall of the lounge. I laughed with delight when I saw my reflection in it, for here was the Universe's way of demonstrating to me that whatever we visualize in our minds can come to pass in the physical world.

Today, find a few minutes to get quiet and journey within. Close your eyes. Visualize a beautiful, large golden mirror surrounded by shimmering white light. This light is Love and it surrounds you, enfolds you, enwraps you, and protects you as you look into the mirror. See the reflection of an extraordinary woman. She is beautiful and radiant. She possesses a strong, healthy, vibrant aura. Her eyes are sparkling and she is smiling warmly at you. Do you know who this woman is? You feel as if you have known her 'all your life. And you have. She is your authentic self. Spend a few moments with her now. What is she doing? How is she doing it? Visit her as often as you like. She is waiting to help you find your way as you make the journey of self-discovery.

There are days when we all fear the harsh glare of the looking glass, but there is never a time when you should hesitate to encounter the woman in the golden mirror. She is the highest reflection of your soul, the embodiment of the perfect woman who resides within and she sends you Love to light your path.


Source: Simple Abundance