Summer Play and Pray

August Blog by Ginny May Schiros

During our prayerful mediation time at Centering Space, there is a quiet that fills the room, and subsequently the soul. It is something that draws people back over and over. For me, there is something special that also comes during the summer months when the windows are open: the sounds of children playing. Deep in silence, these sounds enliven and enrich the meaning of prayer.

Through the windows comes the happy sounds of children on the playground and in the cool waters of the pool celebrating the joy of childhood. From down the driveway we can hear teens of every variety playing amiably at the skateboard park or on the basketball court.  Peace reigns in the sounds of a summer.

These joyful sounds are a reminder during the great silence that in a life of Divine love, play is just another way to pray. By being attached to being serious, we can miss out on the joy that is God’s gift to us in creation. We can expand our experience of prayer by taking it out into the playground of life—think of it is a prayer ground. So, like the writer says below, when you make out your next “to do” list, remember to add pleasure to your list.

The Word by Tony Hoagland

Down near the bottom
of the crossed-out list
of things you have to do today,

between “green thread”
and “broccoli,” you find
that you have penciled “sunlight.”

Resting on the page, the word is beautiful.
It touches you
as if you had a friend

and sunlight were a present
he had sent from someplace distant
as this morning—to cheer you up,

and to remind you that,
among your duties, pleasure
is a thing

that also needs accomplishing.
do you remember?
That time and lights are kinds

of love,  and love
is no less practical
than a coffee grinder

or a safer spare tire?
Tomorrow you may be utterly
without a clue,

but today you get a telegram
from the heart in exile,
proclaiming that the kingdom

still exists,
the king and queen still alive,
still speaking to their children,

–to any one among them
who can find the time
to sit out in the sun and listen.