A Prayer for the Overwhelmed 🙏
With the sun streaming in, I paint this morning with a full heart. I feel wrapped in gratitude for so many aspects of being alive. Painting helps me to narrow in on the simple joy of the movement of paint on canvas, and painting helps me to expand outward to gratitude for the the roof over my head, the loving people in my life, and the way the sun rises each day. As I immerse myself in this restorative environment, I have in mind this morning people who are overwhelmed.
Sometimes it feels like everything comes at once. Right at the moment you get the best news ever, someone you love is in hospital. Right when you decide to dedicate yourself to a new goal, your child needs you urgently. Right when you think you can't take any more, something else comes up and you search in your reserves for how to get through. This prayer is for anyone in that place. That place where your own health, the health of people you care about, your job, your partner's job, your child, your grandchild, your parent, need extra care and attention...AND your dog is barking...AND dinner just burned...AND you get a flat tire. This is a prayer for these moments.
Dear God, God of the stars in the dark night sky, God of the seasons, God of stillness in the morning,
Thank you for this life. It feels messy and overwhelming. And still being here, help us to remember to see it as a gift. God, we thought yesterday was hard enough and today we find even more challenging. Help us to release the question of 'why?' or 'why now?' or 'why me?'. Help us to ask instead, "How can I step into love? How can I see and feel and share love, even in this very moment?"
Help us to surrender to your love. To take a break from solving. Help us to be brave. Give us energy to keep going. Help us to rest. Help us to accept the care that is offered to us. When everything seems to be too much, may we remember to breathe. May we pause and recall the gentle warm breeze of summer. May we remember the flow of seasons. May we remember the stars shining in the night sky. May we remember the intensity of storms and then the quietness of the morning. In all of this, may we remember you, Your gentle presence guiding us and leading us always even when it doesn't feel like it.
May we discover courage where we feel fear. May we find hope where we feel despair. May we step into rest where we feel restless. Hold our hand, walk with us in the parts that must keep moving on...and guide us to rest in the parts that we can let go of. Amen.
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"Spaciousness" 72" x 48" (acrylic on canvas) (c) Bronwen Mayer Henry AVAILABLE