PRAYER / BENEDICTION / UPRISING

Read a book. Write a poem. Make a meal for someone you love.
Play music that lifts your heart and sing along. Read poems out loud
even if you are alone.

Go outside and look at the sky. Move your body and feel it
breathing. Read memoirs of resistance and uprising. Drink tea
with brown sugar or honey. Dance. Break out the crayons, pencils or
paints and color with a child.

Volunteer to bring hot chocolate or blankets or fresh bread
to a shelter. Light a candle at dusk against any darkness.
Meet the eyes of a stranger. Watch the movie that makes you laugh.
Speak gently. Pass the tissues to whoever needs them.
Smile. Open doors. Listen.

Hold hands. Hold someone so that you can both feel your hearts
beating. Make love. Tell someone that they are beautiful and strong.
Tell yourself that you are beautiful and strong.

Write across your one hand the word HOPE and write across the
other hand the word LOVE so that everyone in your presence
sees them, including yourself.
Walk with these words like a mantra in your heart,
one step for hope, one step for love,
so that your walking is a prayer,
so that your being is a benediction,
so that your breath is the uprising that lifts your spirit like song.

© 2017 DORA E. MCQUAID

All peace to each one of you. Dora