November Twenty-Twenty-One

 

A Prayer for Letting Go

O God, in whom all creation exists

And who exists in all creation,

Give us strength

To loosen our parental grip

And let go

Of what

And of who

Were never truly ours in the first place.

 

The days felt so long,

And now it’s time to step back

So the one

Who will always be so little to us

Can move forward

To take their wobbly first steps

Into adulthood.

 

In the places we cannot be,

Help us trust You are there

With the mothering spirit of an eagle,

Rousing her chicks and hovering over her young,

Spreading her wings to take them up

And carry them to safety.

 

In the paces we cannot be,

Help us know You are there

With the fathering spirit of a shepherd,

Protecting Your lambs and caring for the young,

Leaving the ninety-nine to protect the one

And carry that one to safety.

 

As our child makes their place in the world,

Be the fresh air that fills their lungs.

Lead them to places of rest,

And propel them to keep going

When they’re road weary

And not sure if they can go on.

Build hope into their hearts

So they know they’re never alone-

Not for one minute, O Lord,

Not even for one moment.

 

Let every act of parenting’s past

And parenting’s future

Be an act of love,

O Lord.

Help us remember

That even in this dance

Of stepping back

And letting go,

You’ll hold them

As they journey on.

And You’ll hold us, too,

As we watch them soar.

And You’ll never,

Not once,

Let us down.

 

-Kayla Craig, To Light Their Way

Blessed are you autumn, 
with your flair for drama 
you call to the poet in our hearts, 
“Return to the earth, become good soil 
wait for new seeds.”
Blessed are you autumn
season of unpredictability. 
You inspire us to be flexible 
to learn from our shifting moods. 
Blessed are you, autumn 
season of surrender 
you teach us the wisdom of letting go 
as you draw us into new ways of life.
        –The Circle of Life,  Joyce Rupp & Macrina Wiederkehr

Oh God, gather me now to be with you as you are with me.

Soothe my tiredness;
quiet my fretfulness;
curb my aimlessness;
relieve my compulsiveness;
let me be easy for a moment.

O Lord, release me
from the fears and guilts which grip me so tightly;
from the expectations and opinions which I so tightly grip,
that I may be open
to receiving what you give,
to risking something genuinely new,
to learning something refreshingly different.

Forgive me
for claiming so much for myself
that I leave no room for gratitude;
for confusing exercises in self-importance
with acceptance of self-worth;
for complaining so much of my burdens
that I become a burden;
for competing against others so insidiously
that I stifle celebrating them
and receiving your blessing through their gifts.

O God, gather me to be with you as you are with me.

Amen.

Ted Loder, Guerillas of Grace

"Our first responsibility, the most potent offering we possess is gratitude." 
-Robin Wall Kimmerer Braiding Sweetgrass