The Good-night Prayer


Bedtimes take on a special hue and hum this time of year Even as the yawns and stretches begin, fireflies may still be blinking on and off outside; the frogs, crickets, and cicadas may only just be beginning to call; and the colors of sunset may linger in a not-yet-inky sky. 

You may already have a bedtime routine, and it may or may not include saying prayers. Some UU's pray, and some don't. Those who don't sometimes feel as if prayer doesn't move them, or that they don't need or want to be moved, or that they don't believe that there is a "beyond the self" to reach though prayer. But others would pray, want to pray, but are held up by feeling silly or unsure or clunky with it. UU minister Erik Wiksrom makes the case for praying like this: 

"If you long to connect with the Sacred, if you desire to live a life that is more in touch with the Holy, stop listening for something and start simply listening. If you have given up on an anthropomorphic deity--the old white guy with the long white beard, or any of his stand-ins--yet can't figure out what to put in its place, stop looking for something and start simply looking around you. Notice those places in your life where you have felt yourself in the presence of the Holy, remember those experiences in which you have heard your connectedness; seek in your own life--your own feelings, your own moments--those places where you have encountered, or are encountering, the Sacred. In other words, simply pray. Pray without any preconceived notion of what you're doing or why. Simply do it, and see what happens." (Simply Pray, 2005)

In that spirit, here's one that might be printed out and taped to a bedside wall:


Be well,

-- T.H.Y.

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