Summer



Thank you, Lord,

for this season

  of sun and slow motion,

    of games and porch sitting,

      of picnics and light green fireflies

      

           on heavy purple evenings;

and praise for slight breezes.

It's good, God,

as the first long days of your creation.



Let this season be for me

  a time of gathering together the pieces

    into which my busyness has broken me.

O God, enable me now

  to grow wise through reflection,

    peaceful through the song of the cricket,

      recreated through the laughter of joy.



Most of all, Lord,

let me live easily and grace-fully for a spell,

  so that I may see other souls deeply,

    share in a silence unhurried,

       listen to the sound of sunlight and shadows,

         explore barefoot the land of forgotten dreams and shy hopes,

            and find the right words to tell another who I am.



(from "Guerrillas of Grace: Prayers for the Battle" by Ted Loder)