Our Spiritual Nature

We are born with a spiritual nature, and the more we can surrender the urge to know the absolute, the more wonder and mystery can unfold and rise up. Can we allow ourselves to discover our spiritual dimension? The kids at the school where I work love to draw. They are always playing, and exploring their creative nature. I think this is also true for our spiritual nature. The same freedom is possible, if we give it to ourselves.

I try to give myself the freedom to explore and discover prayer through many forms of expression: in silence, in words, in writing, in walking, through loving, through listening. I can sometimes find a prayerful state in cooking, in folding the laundry, in swimming, or in reading aloud to my students in the library.

In many ways, if I  don’t see my day-to-day experiences as a form of prayer,  then I will always be missing something. The sacred lives in the quotidian of the day, as well in rituals and the private prayers of the heart. It’s about integrated living, the monk’s way, the way work and prayer, action and stillness, God and the dishes, all weave together.

Yet, it can be difficult  to sustain the energy and the trust sometimes, and tapping into the great history of prayers can be inspiring and encouraging. World Prayer is a wonderful resource and worth looking at.

Here’s something by Rainer Marie Rilke, they have listed:

I find you, Lord, in all things
and in all 
my fellow creatures,
pulsing with your life;
as a tiny seed you sleep in what is small
and in the vast you vastly yield yourself.

What do we do when we feel jammed in the doorway, when we find ourselves stuck and wanting to get back in touch with our spiritual dimension? I remember the sweet fragrance of the lilac bushes, the songs of the birds, and the silence of the brown hills?

Prayer is always happening, in the variety and layers of our daily experiences. Look for it. Claim it. Play with it. Get to know it. It’s yours.