P. is being discharged from hospital - and "A Prayer for Prayer"

My friend P. is being released from hospital, just a week after his surgery. I spoke with him mid-day and he sounded well. There will be long weeks of healing, but it will be nice for him to be back in his own home, with his partner B. and their very nice dog K.

Here is a final excerpt from the book, a kind of postscript called "A Prayer for Prayer," by Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman.

O My God

My soul's companion

My heart's precious friend

I turn to You.

I need to close out the noise

To rise above the noise

The noise that interrupts--

The noise that separates--

The noise that isolates.

I need to hear You again.

In the silence of my innermost being,

In the fragments of my yearned-for wholeness,

I hear whispers of Your presence--

Echoses of the past when You were with me

When I felt Your nearness

When together we walked--

When You held me close, embraced me in Your love,

laughed with me in my joy.

I yearn to hear You again.

In Your oneness, I find healing.
In the promise of Your love, I am soothed.

In Your wholeness, I too can become whole again.

Please listen to my call--

*****help me find the words

*****help me find the strength within

*****help me shape my mouth, my voice, my heart

so that I can direct my spirit and find You in prayer

In words only my heart can speak

In songs only my soul can sing

Lifting my eyes and heart to You.

Adonai S'fatai Tiftach--open my lips, precious God,

so that I can speak with You again.

From Rabbi Simkha Y. Weintraub, C.S.W., ed. Healing of Soul, Healing of Body: Spiritual Leaders unfold the Strength and Solace of Psalms. Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, 1994.

Special thanks to Anita D, who gave me the book lo those many years ago, around the time it was published.

Art: Modeh Ani, prayer of thanksgiving upon waking up. Dvora Black, art for children.