These past two days have been stuffed with wonderful things to think about and stern challenges for me to comprehend and then move with. None of which are yet ready to be written, even though that’s where my brain is busiest!

So in the meantime, I’ll share this prayer, first offered by Howard Thurman:

Give me the listening ear. I seek this day the ear that will not shrink from the word that corrects and admonishes — the word that holds up before me the image of myself that causes me to pause and reconsider — the word that challenges me to deeper consecration and higher resolve — the word that lays bare needs that make my own days uneasy, that seizes upon every good decent impulse of my nature, channeling into paths of healing in the lives of others.

Give me the listening ear. I seek this day the disciplined mind, the disciplined heart, the disciplined life that makes my ear the focus of attention through which I may become mindful of expressions of life foreign to my own. I seek the stimulation that lifts me out of old ruts and established habits which keep me conscious of my needs, my self, my personal interests.

Give me this day — the eye that is willing to see the meaning of the ordinary, the familiar, the commonplace — the eye that is willing to see my own faults for what they are — the eye that is willing to see the likable qualities in those I may not like — the mistake in what I thought was correct — the strength in what I had labeled as weakness. Give me the eye that is willing to see that Thou hast not left Thyself without a witness in every living thing. Thus to walk with reverence and sensitiveness through all the days of my life.