I’m not sure what got me thinking about the prayers we use to say as kids. You know the ones. Here’s the prayer thanking God for our food: “God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food. By His hand we are all fed. Give us Lord our daily bread. Amen.”
And then the nighttime one: “Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. God bless and then we name all the people we hope God will bless and finish with amen.”

I wondered what the prayers would look like if I took a look at them metaphysically. So, here goes:
God is great. God is good. This is true no matter what name or word you use for God. Could be Universe, Divine, Spirit, Goddess. Any will do. We in Unity and all New Thought believe that God is all good, only good. There is no opposite to good where the Divine is concerned. And if Goddess is all good, that has to be great, right?

Let us thank Him for our food. Well, personally, I thank the Divine Universe for everything. Gratitude is one of the greatest means of increasing abundance there is, so be grateful for all that you have, all you experience, all you know, the people in your life. Even the unpleasant things and people, because there’s a lesson in there someplace.

I am so grateful to be able to see and smell the flowers and the sea air and the good food cooking. I am so grateful I can think and speak and touch. My one dog is almost blind and will lose her one eye in surgery this week because of the glaucoma is that eye. But she is still such a happy dog. I appreciate my sight even more as I watch her get use to finding her way around the house and yard.

And if we look at how we get our food, we can see that the Universe has a part in it all. We get our ideas from the Great Cosmos, ideas are our gift from God/Goddess. So, the knowledge to know how to plant and what to plant and how to get the harvest to where it can be used to nourish the people of the world, that’s all part of the wisdom Divine Spirit has given us.

So, yes; by His hand we all are fed is true. We just have to let go of our need for more than we need and the whole world could be fed, and safely too.

Because we only need ‘our daily bread.’ We don’t need to stock up with food that doesn’t get used until it’s too late and spoiled. We don’t need so much that we throw away at one meal more food than what some people get in a week, and not just in third world countries either. There are families, children in this country who are food insecure, not knowing where the meal is coming from or when.

It’s not much different than the Israelites crossing the desert. Yaweh provided manna twice a day for sustenance. They didn’t need anything else and they didn’t need to save anything day-to-day. They just had to trust and follow the guidance given them.

Now let’s look at that nighttime prayer. Now I lay me down to sleep; that’s simple enough.

I pray the Lord my soul to keep. How can God not keep our soul? We are part of Goddess and so our soul cannot be apart from the Divine.
And if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. Same thing. We are all part of the One, whatever you want to call that ONE. So, living, dying. God is with us, in us, a part of us. And of everyone and everything else.

And Blessing everyone is a most wonderful thing to do. When we bless someone, we are saying, be plentiful; be at peace; be happy. So, yes; bless everyone and everything. Send them peace and love. This is how peace begins, with each one of us. Be peace. Give peace. Be loving.

I’ve been practicing PATIENCE these last few weeks.  It’s not something I had on my agenda to do, tho I must say that I do try to be patient in my daily living.

No, it’s my oldest dog, April.  She had a medical incident that I thought was a stroke.  Her one eye couldn’t open and she was so restless that neither of us had much sleep that night.  Of course, Shyla, my other dog, slept through the whole thing!

Taking her to the vet to find out she has glaucoma in her right eye.  It was compounded with an abscessed tooth on her right side too.  So, surgery took care of the tooth.  The eye is another story.

April was already very challenged with her eyesight due to cataracts in both eyes.  She could still see pretty well though.  And she could follow me her nose which she said was in very good working order, thank you very much!

After this episode, however, she has hardly any sight, some motion and about 6 inches in front of her she can see SOMETHING is there.

So, we have been taking extra care watching out for her so she doesn’t get into any trouble falling.  She likes to be independent so likes to wander around, but now I have to make sure she doesn’t wander too far or into any danger.

I have had to adjust my work inside and out. Outside, always looking for where she is and going to get her, at least until we figure out some kind of outside pen so she can be with me as I work in the yard and garden.

Inside it’s not too much of a problem until I try to work on my class work.  For those of you who are not aware, I lead classes in this area on spirituality, metaphysics and self-awareness. I spend a d amount of time preparing and with April, now, getting interrupted to get her, move her from falling off the couch, taking her out when she used to be able to do that on her own.

That is where the patience come in.  It can be frustrating when moving along with a thought and have to stop because she needs out, or rescued from something. So if this seems a bit out of sync, my apologies!

I don’t recall asking for more patience?  We all know to be careful of what we ask for because we may just get it, and not necessarily how we thought!  I do recall asking for patience decades ago, while still teaching and in another working situation where personalities clashed.  But not lately.

So, the Universe may be catching up with me, which I doubt.  I recall many opportunities to practice patience during those times. 

Maybe one more opportunity to give to others?  Been doing that.  Almost to a fault.

Whatever the lesson, I will work on patience for my little furry friends and take care of them.  They have been a blessing. And maybe that’s the message, to honor all life (something I’ve been contemplating with the mosquitoes).  And to honor every day, live it because we do not know when it will change with the loss of a loved one.

So, I will continue to love my April, and my Shyla, my two bichons.  And all life, even the mosquitoes (I’ll give ‘em a chance to leave the house). And I will hold reverence for each and every day, even when we don’t sleep because April can’t get settled.  And when I’m working, I will remember said these things. 

And I will ask the Universe to remember I already worked on PATIENCE!