(no subject)

[semperfiona]

Kathy called this evening. The house is still intact and they expect to be allowed to return home tomorrow.

This episode has crystallized a feeling I've had for some time. I'm nostalgic for the days when I believed in prayer. Now I believe that there's nothing I can actually do to influence the outcome. I can wish and hope all I like, but winds and flames will do what they will do. Back then, there was *something*. I don't even know what to say to show concern: somehow "I hope for the best" seems so ineffectual.

I'm thinking the "power of prayer" was in making ME feel like I had the capacity to do something. Is that why people pray for their sports teams to win? Because they certainly can't get out there on the field and influence the game, but if they just pray hard enough...

There's a lot of things I'd pray for if I believed in it. But I don't, and I'm at a loss. I can't stop feeling like I ought to be able to do *something* but I have no idea what it is.

Comments

[jilly-bear.livejournal.com]

I still pray - just not to one God but to many as well as several Goddesses. :) You can also do magic - again, it's the power of your intention not the physicality of it. Hang in there - it all works out. :)

[calenorn.livejournal.com]

Some think of prayer as an exercise in the expression of compassion. Something anyone could participate in without reservation.

The greatest power of prayer is the way it changes the one praying. Other than that, I don't want my prayers to have 'power.' Goodness, who am I to decide such things?!

[munin.livejournal.com]

Lapsed (and wow does that look wrong) Catholic that I am I pray. But for me it isn't so much the gods/goddesses I am praying to as ... putting the intention in the world. It's energy work for me for want of a better way of phrasing it I suppose. Call it magic, call it prayer, call it wishing or hoping I think it all has the same effect--to put the intention out into the Universe, whomever (or whatever) is listening.

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

Here is a site to track the fires. San Diego County web site

How about this, Prayer is a way to focus your energies and intentions on what you cannot do anything else about. Prayer is a way to express gratitude for what you have. Even when no one is looking, it can be good to review those things.

Even if you don't feel anyone is listening, prayer is something good for you to do, to take your focus off the day-to-day crazy. You can also call it meditation. (Although I think of meditation as focusing inward, where prayer is outward.) It is good to have that perspective.

Dear Buddah, please bring me a plastic rocket and a pony...

[scottak.livejournal.com]

Prayer was a hard habit to shake for me as well. Not that I ever prayed on a regular basis, outside of just before dinner, but there was always that "Oh God please don't let this really bad thing that's about to happen happen to me" prayer.

Somewhere along the way I learned to evaluate those situations and break them down into things I can and can not control. If something is out of my hands, it's pointless to pray to a god I know isn't there, so the only alternative I have is to pay attention and look for an opportunity to take control.