On Prayer

-Words on High: Graffiti on Gangilonga-

Prayer is not a magic-carpet ride carrying us off to some utopia. It is an act of attention grounded here, alert to connections wherever we wait. The root of the word ‘attention’ is ‘to stretch toward’ and comes from a word meaning to stretch thread as on a loom. The connections of prayer weave their own sacred carpet, joining the variegated threads of our lives one to another and to all things.

-Heidi Neumark
Breathing Space, pg 172

I like language and crafting interesting phrases.
While I don’t necessarily fancy myself a poet, I do like wordplay.
A lot. Perhaps too much.

While waiting for the Big Potato on Saturday, I got talking with one of my peers here.
“You know what your problem with Kiswahili is?” he asked me.
While I started compiling a list of faults in my head, he responded.
“You are too careful with your words. You think too much. You are trying to choose just the right one. You need just to speak.”

I wonder if it might be the same with prayer.

On rounds in the wards every morning
Prayer is central to what we do here as Pastoral Care Givers.
There’s that. And we listen.

Even in Kiingereza –known elsewhere as English – the words stick.
“God understands all languages,” the Chaplain reassures the room.
A dozen or more heads bob in agreement.
Intellectual distance, concern for theological correctness, and a desire to avoid sounding trite choke out the sounds forming in my mouth. I need just to speak.

Kusikiliza. Kusema.
Kuomba.