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Saturday, May 14, 2011

Prayer: Prayer for Taking off your Shoes

Creator of fire and water,
Your burning bush has turned into a bubbling brook
And I have taken off my shoes
having heard you call my name.

You do not speak in fire only, Lord.
In water you have sung your songs
And you are singing still.
Today you chant a memory-song to my grown-up heart.

You are washing my anxiety away
You are reminding me of days of old when I had time to play.
I stand barefoot upon the stones the rushing water,
lapping at my heels.
The sharp stones pierce my grown-up soles
My tough child-feet have worn away as I grew up,
forgetting to play.

Creator of the rocks and streams,
I'm growing up once more
I'm taking off my shoes and remembering to adore.
My feet are getting tough again
My heart is getting young.

From Seasons of Your Heart by Macrina Wiederkehr

4 comments:

  1. This is a beauty.
    Reminds me of the song Forever Young by Bob Dylan.
    Blessings

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  2. Just after reading this poem I came across this one from Rilke which is a nice complement to the feet. Hope you like it.

    Hand's inner self. Sole, that does its walking
    just with feelings. That holds itself face up
    and, as in a mirror,
    receives from heaven its own meandering pathways.
    That has learned to walk on water
    when it splashes.
    That walks on wells,
    transforming every journey.
    That finds itself in other hands
    and turns them into landscapes,
    wanders and arrives in them,
    fills them with arrival.

    Blessings

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  3. Beautiful, thank you.
    I have been struck in the past year that some of the people I come across are burning bushes as well.
    In a way I should be walking barefoot all the time :-)

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  4. Philomena, Bob Dylan had some great lyrics. Thanks for the Rilke poem. It does carry the same sentiments.

    Claire, I've always loved the quote from Thomas Merton that goes something like this, "There is not way of telling people that they are walking around shining like the sun."

    ReplyDelete