PRAY FOR PEACE
\nby Ellen Bass http:\/\/www.ellenbass.com\/peace.html<\/p>\n
Pray to whoever you kneel down to:
\nJesus nailed to his wooden or marble or plastic cross, his suffering
\nface bent to kiss you, Buddha still under the Bo tree in scorching
\nheat, Yahweh, Allah, raise your arms to Mary that she may lay her palm
\non our brows, to Shekinhah, Queen of Heaven and Earth, to Inanna in her
\nstripped descent.<\/p>\n
Hawk or Wolf, or the Great Whale, Record Keeper of time before, time
\nnow, time ahead, pray. Bow down to terriers and shepherds and Siamese
\ncats. Fields of artichokes and elegant strawberries.<\/p>\n
Pray to the bus driver who takes you to work, pray on the bus, pray for
\neveryone riding that bus and for everyone riding buses all over the
\nworld. If you haven’t been on a bus in a long time, climb the few
\nsteps, drop some silver, and pray.<\/p>\n
Waiting in line for the movies, for the ATM, for your latt\u00e9 and
\ncroissant, offer your plea. Make your eating and drinking a
\nsupplication. Make your slicing of carrots a holy act, each translucent
\nlayer of the onion, a deeper prayer.<\/p>\n
Make the brushing of your hair a prayer, every strand its own voice,
\nsinging in the choir on your head. As you wash your face, the water
\nslipping through your fingers, a prayer: Water, softest thing on earth,
\ngentleness that wears away rock.<\/p>\n
Making love, of course, is already a prayer. Skin and open mouths
\nworshipping that skin, the fragile case we are poured into, each caress
\na season of peace.<\/p>\n
If you’re hungry, pray. If you’re tired. Pray to Gandhi and
\nDorothy Day. Shakespeare. Sappho. Sojourner Truth. Pray to
\nthe angels and the ghost of your grandfather.<\/p>\n
When you walk to your car, to the mailbox, to the video store, let each
\nstep be a prayer that we all keep our legs, that we do not blow off
\nanyone else’s legs. Or crush their skulls. And if you are riding on a
\nbicycle or a skateboard, in a wheel chair, each revolution of the
\nwheels a prayer that as the earth revolves we will do less harm, less
\nharm, less harm.<\/p>\n
And as you work, typing with a new manicure, a tiny palm tree painted
\non one pearlescent nail or delivering soda or drawing good blood into
\nrubber-capped vials, writing on a blackboard with yellow chalk,
\ntwirling pizzas, pray for peace.<\/p>\n
With each breath in, take in the faith of those who have believed when
\nbelief seemed foolish, who persevered. With each breath out, cherish.<\/p>\n
Pull weeds for peace, turn over in your sleep for peace, feed the birds
\nfor peace, each shiny seed that spills onto the earth, another second
\nof peace. Wash your dishes, call your mother, drink wine.<\/p>\n
Shovel leaves or snow or trash from your sidewalk. Make a path. Fold a
\nphoto of a dead child around your VISA card. Gnaw your crust of prayer,
\nscoop your prayer water from the gutter. Mumble along like a crazy
\nperson, stumbling your prayer through the streets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PRAY FOR PEACE by Ellen Bass http:\/\/www.ellenbass.com\/peace.html Pray to whoever you kneel down to: Jesus nailed to his wooden or marble or plastic cross, his suffering face bent to kiss you, Buddha still under the Bo tree in scorching heat, Yahweh, Allah, raise your arms to Mary that she may lay her palm on our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacefulhippo.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacefulhippo.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacefulhippo.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacefulhippo.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacefulhippo.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/peacefulhippo.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacefulhippo.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacefulhippo.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacefulhippo.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}