Another Celtic Prayer

The book of Celtic prayers (Sounds of the Eternal, by J. Philip Newell) that I picked up in Michigan recently continues to shape my evening prayers as I prepare for sleep each night.  One of the Sunday night prayers felt especially appropriate for where I'm at in life right now, and where I'm at today, and I wanted to share it here.

In the quiet of the night
may I know your presence, O God.
At the ending of the day
may my soul be alive to your nearness.
Amidst the tiredness that overcomes my body
and the tensions that linger in my mind,
amidst the uncertainties and fears
that haunt me in the darkness of the night,
let me know your presence, O God,
let my soul be alive to your nearness.

Daily 5 - Day 352

This was my sabbath day.  Turns out making space for quiet and rest makes space for all of those other voices that can be silenced with work and busyness to stir, too, and I spent another good chunk of the morning crying, and wondering and hurting.

That said, I wanted to make a longer daily 5 list today, because today felt like the sort of day where I really needed the longer version.  The kind of day where I needed to find everything I could that brought a smile, or a moment of encouragement.  The things that soothed my soul in some way, or struck me even a little as happy today.

so, here's today's daily 5, in no particular order:

1. organic corn chips with salsa con queso
2. watching Grey's Anatomy on DVD for the first time in ages
3. one of those days where junk food for dinner just eases the soul
4. actually finding a food (even if it was junk!) that when I was hungry, sounded good to me (my body has been letting me know I'm hungry lately, but absolutely no food has felt appealing, so I've just kind of been eating to sustain energy and life, not really for enjoyment)
5. that moment when you drive over a Texas gate and realize the driver has perfectly aligned their tires to the metal strips so that it isn't bumpy
6. listening to thunder roll through the skies in the mountains
7. candles lit all over my bedroom to add warmth and light
8. sleeping late in the morning
9. a long hot shower after the kind of day that just leaves you feeling tired and slimy from the stuff of life
10. clean drinking water
11. taking photos in the mountains
12. a day of rest
13. tears shed
14. the comfort of doing routine, repetitive tasks
15. playing a game online
16. finishing up a long avoided task
17. getting through a bunch of "to dos"
18. "going" to church online, in my pajamas, in bed
19. checking the balance of one of my student loans and discovering it's closer to being paid off than I thought
20. pretty notebooks to jot notes to myself in.