This summer, I began a new practice–spiritual journaling. I’m not calling it prayer journaling, because I don’t just write prayers–there are poems, stream-of-consciousness scribbles, and all sorts of things that I wouldn’t necessarily characterize as prayer, but that nonetheless are part of my spiritual development.
I find it relaxing and centering. Which, for many, probably seems strange–writing on top of more writing (aka the papers and essays and responses and so on that are constantly due in the world of academia)?
But it’s a different kind of writing. A conversation, if you will, with your spirit. And with the Spirit (of the holy variety). A communing of sorts.
And I’ve always loved words. I’ve always written, be it poetry or short stories or essays. But this is my first spiritually-focused writing. And I quite like it.
There’s something more solid-seeming, less ephemeral, about writing prayers down. I admit, I’m one of those people who lies in bed saying her nighttime prayers and then just ends up falling asleep in the middle of it… So this is good for me.
It also allows me to look back and track my progress, in a way. See what was concerning me, what was uplifting me, a week or a month or a day ago. It’s a way to remember.
But enough talking about the process. Let me share with you one of the prayers I penned, right at the beginning of classes this year:
Dear God,
Give me the strength to carry love aways at the forefront of my being, before complaints or fears or worries. Help me to see my fellow spiritual companions with eyes clear and unclouded by my own selfish preoccupations.
Help me to foster spiritual wellness within myself, that I may serve to foster that same wellness within others.
Remind me, in my walk today and every day, that peace is every step. I know this is a gift you will not just bestow upon me, but an effort we embark upon together.
Let me never forget the light of that divine spark burning within me, and within the heart of every other living being. Everything is connected.
Amen.