A Call To Prayer

A few years ago I spent three weeks in Tanzania. While there I got to know people from many different cultures including people from the remote villages, members of the Maasi tribe as well as people who where Muslim. On the first morning there I remember waking up at sunrise to the Muslim tradition of calling everyone to prayer. Chanting comes over the loudspeaker that reminds everyone in hearing distance that it is time to stop what they are doing and turn their attention to a power higher than themselves. This call goes out 5 times a day and is strictly adhered too.

I was aware of what it was because we had been told about it...but it was different being there and hearing it. The chanting was loud and clear in the still of the morning with the sun just coming up. I could imagine people waking up and their first thoughts were about prayer. It reminded me too that it was important to acknowledge God's spirit within me.

This was on my mind because I was recently reminded of this tradition by the friends I had traveled with. As it sat in my mind I wondered how my responses to the world would be different if I was reminded of God 5 times a day. What if the call to prayer came during a difficult conversation with someone? What if the call came when you were overwhelmed and fearful? What if you were fighting with someone? As I pose these questions I can't help but wonder if I would drop my defenses and come to love and forgiveness faster. I don't know for sure but it would change the perspective.

Every morning when I wake up before I do anything else I mediate and ask for Divine guidance to open my heart and to guide my words and actions in a way that is loving to all. But I am like everyone else sometimes with my best intentions, I fall short of how I want to be. The call to prayer is not part of our culture but I think the idea of it reminds all of us that God is guiding us at every moment even when things are hard. It is a wonderful assurance.
Blessings,
Sandy

An Apache Blessing...

May the sun
bring you new energy by day

May the moon
softly restore you by night

May the rain
wash away your worries

May the breeze
blow new strength into your being

May you walk
gently through the world and know
its beauty all the days of your life


I am wondering how many times we take a moment to send a blessing to those people that are important to us? I wonder further... how many times we send a blessing to those people who have hurt us in some way? I choose the picture I did because it represents to me what happens inside when we bless the people around us. And as we do it that, the same blessing happens in us. May you be blessed beyond measure.
Sandy

You are invited to attend Stories of Hope on Nov. 7th at St. James Lutheran Church in Burnsville. Visit our web site for more information
www.counselingandhealing.com/stories_of_hope.aspx

Holding Hope...

In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer. ~Albert Camus

With Stories of Hope right around the corner I have been thinking a lot about the idea of hope. My question over the last few weeks has been, how do you hold on to hope when all the evidence is to the contrary? It is an interesting and complex question to answer.

I have been trying to answer this for myself. My life circumstances as a child were very hopeless. As an abused child, my life continued to get worse with the violence escalating against me. It literally felt like no way out and and my future looked bleak indeed. In the face of all odds stacked against me, I knew that there was a different life for me and that would change my family.

I have been asked how I knew that and I have had difficulty putting into words. It was not something that came from my logical mind but from my spirit. I had a knowing at a young age that I would be given everything I needed to make a different life for myself. It is hard to hang on to that feeling when the world around me was crumbling, but in the darkest hour the feeling would come back to me. It would allow me to get up and press on. I came to realize at an early age how resilient the human spirit is. This knowing was not in my mind but in my heart and I could feel it in every part of my body. I realize now what an incredible gift I was given to experience this Divine knowing that helped me hold hope in my heart.

I know that this is not only true for me but for you as well. We all have times in our life that seem hopeless and out of our control, but yet we continue on moving into the future with a hopeful heart. That is what our world needs; for each one of us to hold hope for healing our own lives so we can create a future for our children that is hopeful.

That is what Stories of Hope...We Are The Hope For Our Children is about. It is about how we can each look at our own lives, heal the places were we feel wounded and create a world where love and compassion is a generous outpouring of who we are.

I invite each one of you to come to this free gift to the community on Friday night, Nov. 7th at St. James Lutheran Church. Invite others to join you for inspiring program.

Blessings,

Sandy

For more information visit us at www.counselingandhealing.com/stories_of_hope.aspx