Prayer in Odd Places and Odd Times

I’m determined to put spiritual practice back into my life. I’ve been struggling for a year at least to find the time for a sustainable practice. I know…I teach and write about practical spirituality, by which I mean short, easy, sustainable practices that fit into our busy lives. However, I have failed to practice what I preach. I have not even made myself touch the mezzuzah on the door as I enter my home or say a prayer upon going to bed or arising in the morning.

For the last two weeks, however, I have been trying to “do better.” I’ve seen that mezuzzah and touched it and said the Shema. I’ve taken my Ipod with me when I walk, and I’ve listened to spiritual music and prayers. For example, I enjoy listening to Kabblah Kirtan by Yofiyah and doing the kirtan practice with her. I also enjoy listening to Rabbi Shefa Gold’s CDs, and I switch back and forth from one chant to another as I walk and chant along creating my own service, if you will.

This morning I was feeling frustrated and angry for a variety of reasons, one of which was that I would not have time to walk and pray. So, I turned my Ipod on and did morning prayers with Rabbi David Cooper and his wife, Shoshana, as I chanted along to their CD, Songs of Prayer and Silence. I definitely felt better afterwards, and I felt I had managed to fit in a spiritual practice. Maybe I did it at an odd time and in an odd place, but I don’t know why my car can’t become a mishkan, a sacred space, if I make it so. ย Indeed, it can and it was.

Spirituality, and spiritual connection to our Source, isn’t necessarily something that has to take a long time or be done at the same time each day. We can fit it into our lives and make it part of our lives simply with the intention to do so and a consciousness that allows us to find the Divine in all sorts of places, actions, relationships, sounds, smells. God is everywhere and in everything. So, making our daily lives into a spiritual practice really shouldn’t be that difficult if we simply turn our attention to God and to all things spiritual.

It may feel like a struggle to find time for your spiritual practice. I may still have days when I feel frustrated that I haven’t had time to light incense and sit and meditate and pray. However, I can have a spirit-filled day if I turn my attention to spirit every minute of that day. God dwells in the moment anyway. I need only be in the moment with God at all moments of the day to have a spiritual practice.

1 thought on “Prayer in Odd Places and Odd Times”

  1. Wonderful points. I too, believe that any place I choose to pray in becomes a sacred place in that moment. But stop ‘trying to do better’ my friend, and simply ‘decide to do better’. The distinction is important, and makes a difference in the way that you look at even your own efforts.

    Peace, Bob

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