Just Like A Prayer

I connect to prayer very deeply. I both enjoy and believe in it. It is such an important tool in living a grateful existence. I very strongly believe in God, but prayer can be without that belief. Someone can pray to the ocean, the wind, any of the elements. The word "prayer" conjures up a feverish, desperate means for requests or pleas from God. But it's really just a conversation we have with a higher power, any higher power.

It can be as happy and soft as a baby's giggle. It can be a joyful burst of appreciation. Or a need to take ourselves into a deeper space, much like any form of mediation. I have recently started yoga meditation. Eh. Just kidding, it's been life altering. Having also benefited from cognitive therapy, I can tell you that it falls into that for me, in the way of providing loving mantras and ways to calm ourselves down. Many a human has talked themselves off an emotional ledge with prayer. It's comforting, it's hopeful. And to the cynics who might laugh and believe our words are being lost in the vacuum of the universe, it doesn't matter if that's true or not. Just speaking the words are healing. So if we have helped ourselves by putting our souls out there, whoever does or does not receive that is secondary. We made the first move.

I very much want to share with you my favorite prayer. It's from "Kohanim" in the Hebrew service. That is the word for the high priests who served devoutly in the Temple. That prayer is said on Jewish holidays. Jews are divided into three groups; the Kohanim, Levites, and Israelites. I know this is getting wacky, but bare with me. I said I liked it, I didn't say it was normal... So during this prayer the descendants of the High Priests use their special lineage to bless the rest of the congregation. They stand together, draped in their prayer shawls, and essentially chant. The power of this prayer is said to be so great, that no one shall look upon them while this is all taking place. It's too sacred. But my favorite part lies in a section of the words, in which we say to God, "Master of the Universe, I am yours and my dreams are yours". They had me at dreams. I am a massive dreamer, both when I'm awake and asleep. I feel very sorry for people who claim they don't dream. Of course, they must be able to! But there's a spiritual blockage preventing them from accessing their dreams, from opening doors to their innermost selves.

I feel grateful to be open to allow me to vividly dream, even if it occasionally includes the inadvertent public nudity scenario. The relief when you wake up clothed and alone is worth it😜. I have had beautiful visits with some dearly departed loved ones in my dreams. I say visits because that is what they were. They were real. Nothing will convince me otherwise. As my amazing friend SO said, her whole day is better when she dreams about her mother, who is physically not here.  Knowing that there is some other force that knows me better than I know myself, to the extent that even my dreams belong to them, that is a very humbling, mystical feeling. There is a childlike sense of comfort. It is an otherworldly connection that is hard to describe. When we look to connect with other people, even animals sometimes, that's our goal; to be fused together so completely with another soul. To know them fully. This is the magic of prayer, it connects us to something great and awesome by first connecting us to ourselves.