Welcome.
These next few minutes,
I invite you to set down whatever you might be carrying.
All the questions and worries and all the things still waiting to be resolved.
And just for now.
Giving them permission to simply rest beside you.
As we start to turn our attention toward this world that we all share.
A world of great beauty.
In a world of great need right now.
Perhaps together.
We can offer something simple into it.
Our attention.
Our care.
And our deepest prayer for peace and healing.
Perhaps what is offered sincerely from these hearts of ours can reach farther.
And what we can know or see.
So you're welcome to begin by noticing that you are breathing.
There's no need to deepen the breath or change its rhythm.
Simply allowing yourself to feel the breath arrive.
And eventually fade away.
And maybe also feeling the weight of your body.
The ground and the earth.
Beneath you.
The quiet and beautiful movement of life within.
And if it feels comfortable.
Allow some of your awareness to gather around the heart space.
Not asking the heart to open.
Asking yourself to feel anything particular.
Simply making a little more room here.
A place where we might offer something outward.
And it's from this place we begin.
Sending our prayers.
To all those who are hurting in this world.
For those whose suffering is visible and those carrying pain no one else can see.
For those who are frightened.
Those who are grieving.
Those who are lonely.
Sending our prayers to those who are living through violence,
War.
Displacement,
Hunger,
Illness,
Loss or uncertainty.
Those waiting for news.
Those longing for someone they love.
Those wondering how they will make it through another day.
May the air be care.
May there be kindness.
May they know peace.
For the children of this world.
Those growing in places of safety and those whose childhood has been interrupted.
Too soon.
May they know tenderness.
May they know laughter and play.
May they know what it is to be held by the world around them.
May they know peace.
And for those growing older.
Those facing change,
Illness,
Loss,
Or loneliness.
May they be met with dignity.
May they know companionship.
May they now care.
And may they know peace.
Now allowing this field of compassion to widen.
Beyond any border.
Beyond any belief or ideology.
Beyond the many different ways we have learned to divide ourselves from one another.
May wisdom arise where there is confusion.
May compassion arise where there is hatred.
May we remember,
Beneath all that separates us,
Our shared humanity.
May we all know peace.
Now we extend this prayer beyond our human family toward the animals of the land.
The birds moving through the open sky.
Creatures of the oceans,
Rivers,
Lakes,
And streams.
The small lives hidden beneath the leaves and soil.
The wild ones,
The beloved ones.
The ones whose suffering is rarely seen.
They have a space to live and be safe.
May they be met with gentleness.
May they too,
Know peace.
And perhaps now sensing the earth beneath all of us.
The ancient ground that is carrying every footstep we take.
The forest,
Breathing,
The rivers making their way toward the sea.
The mountains,
Standing quietly through generations.
Time after time.
The deserts and the grasslands,
The wetlands and the oceans.
The soil beneath us.
All the places still flourishing,
And all the places desperately asking for healing.
The water's clear.
Me forest grow.
May wounded places be given time to mend.
May we remember that we do not simply live upon this earth.
We belong to her.
For she is our mother.
Her healing is woven with our own.
May our earth know peace and healing.
And now.
In whatever way comes naturally to you.
Imagining this prayer for peace,
For healing,
Widening.
Perhaps as light or warmth.
Perhaps a quiet field of care surrounding this whole world.
No endless divisions,
Just this earth.
Suspended in the vastness.
Held for a moment.
And compassion.
And perhaps allowing that prayer to reverberate farther outward.
Into the great mystery.
That surrounds us all.
May there be healing,
Deep healing.
May there be compassion.
May there.
Be peace.
And slowly now.
Beginning to notice your own breath again.
Body here with you.
Ground beneath you.
The quiet,
Gentle pulse of life within.
Thank you for taking these few moments of your time to turn your attention outward.
There's so much in this world we cannot control,
But we can choose what we cultivate.
We can choose what we offer.
And perhaps when we step beyond the edges of her own concerns just for a little while.
And offer care to something larger.
That care can move in both directions.
And your healing is connected to my healing.
Our healing is connected to the healing of this world.
Me whatever goodness has gathered here.
Continue outward.
Thank you again for practicing.
We all be well.
May we all be free.
And may we all know peace.
