Inner Practice: Prayer

our gre

To feel abandoned is to deny the intimacy of your surroundings.

Surely,

even you, at times, have felt the grand array;

the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding

out your solo voice.

You must note

the way the soap dish enables you,

or the window latch grants you courage.

Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.

The stairs are your mentor of things

to come, the doors have always been there

to frighten you and invite you,

and the tiny speaker in the phone

is your dream-ladder to divinity.

Put down the weight of your aloneness

and ease into the conversation. The kettle is singing

even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots

have left their arrogant aloofness and

seen the good in you at last. All the birds

and creatures of the world are unutterably

themselves.

Everything is waiting for you.