prayer 112412

Dear God,

Thank you for loving me and knowing me and allowing me to just be here. Today, although there are pressing matters around the globe that require, if not demand, your attention, I'd just like to hang out with you for a while. I'm sitting in this wonderfully comfortable chair that was practically given to me and I realize that You have put some very generous people in my path and I am grateful for each of them. Some, I didn't even recognize in the moment but as I reflect on my life, I see them now. I thank you for wonderfully funny parents who are marvelously extraordinary in their everyday humility. You could have stopped right there and left me in the small circle of my nuclear family but you have allowed me to travel and move and meet and greet an international grouping of people I now call friends. My garden of friends and acquaintances is beautiful in its diversity and I pray that I would be a flower and not a weed in the lives of people I have met. You have allowed me to love and be loved. I have survived heartbreak and bad dates but I have also known a love that endures. Thank you. I don't know what the future holds, but the present is pretty good! Thank you for the new community of artists that you have allowed me to find. My life has a richness that cannot be measured in carats or gold bars. There is something sacred about those spaces and I always find you when I am in them. Thank you for those who use their gift...to your glory. We're all in the process of birthing something. You have allowed me to give birth to a beautiful girl...her life is a testimony to you. I've always known that she is just on loan to me for safe-keeping. The way that you trust me is incredible. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of the lives of students across these 20 years. I also thank you for the tragedies and wounds that make life full and real. You have taught me compassion and patience and love in the midst of loss. You have also taught me where my idols are in the midst of my grief...thank you for allowing me to live long enough to learn from that. In everything today, I just want to hang out with you. I don't want to long for anything today. I just want to be content and complete with you. And so, I shall. Thank you...I'm listening, leaning, present, and here...