Today when I sat with what I most wanted to say to you... I felt like I just wanted to pray for you.
To pray for you to feel loved this month....
Particularly as we are in moments where we're often with people but sitting in fear, insecurity, and unmet expectations which makes feeling our connection possible, but not probable if we're showing up with more angst than love.
Perhaps it's at family gatherings where every relationship doesn't feel easy or fulfilling; or perhaps it's with old friends you don't see often and you're tempted to wonder if the time together is worth it; or perhaps it's at a ConnectingCircle where you're walking into a gathering where you don't know anyone; or at a holiday party where it feels shallow and exhausting.
An Audio Version of My Prayer:
My prayer today is for you that you might find love and meaningful connections wherever it is you go. Whether you feel loved has less to do with who is there and more to do with how you show up.
This prayer is my gift for you: download this 4 minute mp3 and listen to it as a meditation that invites you to breathe deep in the pool of love before breathlessly showing up this season.
Listen to 4-minute prayer for you to feel love
Note: This prayer can be listened to simply by clicking the link and/or downloaded to your computer/phone by selecting the green globe icon in the lower right corner. I spoke it imagining you listening to it before getting out of the car, while you're riding the bus, or right before you leave the house. May it ground you and go with you, opening up possibilities of you feeling ever more connected and loved. xoxo
A Written Version of My Prayer:
To the God that is Known as Love
This beautiful woman, this daughter, this sister of mine is getting ready to be with people… and that so often can bring up all our insecurities and fears.
I want to say a prayer for her… for her peace that she might walk through any door and greet any person… while never doubting her love and strength and worth.
So let her be here in this moment, fully here, with us.
Let her heart catch up with her body that she might be present.
And not just present, but also available, ready, and willing.
First, let me thank you for her. She is one of the beautiful hearts in this world willing to be available to love. She won’t do it perfectly all the time, but this is a woman committed to practicing it. I so thank you for that. Bless her in these moments where she’s willing to pause and ground herself.
And now I pray that she be filled with love.
May she take a deep breath and whisper “I am loved, I am loved, I am loved.”
Letting that love wash over her…. I picture her heart beating and growing bigger and bigger as it sends love out through her entire body…. Almost like a color, a color that is flooding her body—
- Starting in that willing heart—may it be vulnerable and still safe, tender and still strong, receptive and still giving.
- May it fill her lungs as a prayer that her every breath will choose to breath in love, and breath out fear.
- As it washes down through her mid-section and fills her stomach may there be peace where others feel nerves.
- As it pours down through her legs and feet, we take that as a promise that it will go with her wherever she walks.
- As it stretches out through her arms and hands I beg that she might be Your hands in this place—quick to applaud others, and unafraid to touch.
- I watch that love go up through her heart and into her head, flowing up through her throat where it leaves a commitment to speak words of affirmation and encouragement… may that same Love fill her mouth with courage to speak with authenticity tonight.
- May that Love be the lens with which her eyes see… that she might dare to see people the way the Divine sees them… not the way we’re used to measuring people, but with a commitment first to look for evidence as to why they are lovable.
- As it gushes through her ear canals, may she feel excited to listen for the voices of those around her… and may she have wisdom to hear what isn’t even said.
- And finally as it lights up her brain… may she be filled with memories of the times that she has been given love and appreciated it… may it invoke her own inner wisdom and remind her that she is safe and she worthy…
I see her body filled with love.
Oh that this woman would deeply know that she has an abundance of it. That she can give Love even before she knows what form it will return to her.
That she will recognize that she can receive it even if, and when, it is given imperfectly by another.
May this love bless the life of this woman who is now choosing to be an agent of love in this world. Might it add joy, depth, and meaning.
As she walks through those doors—the doors where she will undoubtedly bump into humanity—may the holiness of love go before her, with her, and in her. May it trail behind her leaving a blessing around her… that whoever is with her feels their worth, that whoever connects with her feels listed to and attended to, that those who are in her presence feel hope. And may all these gifts be given to her ten-fold… help her see where she can receive, embrace, ask for, be heard, and be seen.
Because we know that prayers begging to become more loving are prayers that will always be answered, we thank you even now that we have this privilege to practice being God made real tonight.
Thank you, thank you, and amen.
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p.s. I'm leading a call this Sunday, Dec. 7 at 4:30 pm PT/7:30 ET where everyone who holds any loneliness this holiday season is welcome to come and be present... I want to honor it, speak to it, and bless you.... you are so welcome, for free. Get info here.