We pray to what is eternally free, infinite inspiration, Great Spirit and Presence - within all yet beyond all. We are grateful this day for another chance to live, for another chance to love and to enjoy another Summer day. For such vivid reminders of the great elements we are grateful: Sun blazing, bathing earth with energy it needs to be sustained, all green life- generating oxygen for our life’s breaths....water that flows within and all around giving all sacred drink....and the fertile earth we walk upon - the land and soil which bears forth our daily bread. All things, connected and different; all things sacred and instilled with grace and beauty. As the days of our lives slip away as sand in an hourglass, we search for meaning and look to move beyond our prisons that we and others create. We look to create purpose within our freedoms and accountability this day as the rest of our lives begin now.

As we sit and wonder, dwell in Spirit, gather and sing, we commit to elastic hearts and open minds. We also long for commitments and affirmations that clarify where we stand and what we believe. We continue to find our way between infinite and unknown mystery and interim answers that guide and intrigue us. Between mind’s reason and heart’s passion we live and move; we are predictable, yet playful and pliable. And we struggle, O Source of all things, to find a pace and space that allows us to be who we really are. We so search and long for elastic frontiers of heart and mind, yet we stifle the fermentation of ideas and give in to the compromises and expectations required by the stiffness of the old leathered skins of society and religion. Where do we go? Where are we going? May we walk that road of innovation, ideas and action while living out our integrity, faith and true selves.

We commit this day to regarding each other highly and respecting each other as God-persons - those instilled with awe, grace, a spirit of reciprocity, beauty and worth. May we move beyond being apathetic to the importance of saying life-giving words and offering life-giving gestures and proceeding with life-affirming attitudes. May we free ourselves and others to use our minds and creativity wisely so that shape is given to the new. We offer our hands, our voices, our hearts and minds to creating a more humane, human, honest community here and beyond these walls. Might we invite, create and experience happiness in the contexts of our relationships. May we really consider again what it means to love one another right now.

May our hands, voices and hearts be active and present to those in need, those we love, those being born, those dying....those in relationships breaking apart, those seeking new jobs, those searching for health and wholeness, those depressed, those joy -filled as well. [we remember Julia Miller, Chris Ammon, Bob France and others in the midst of life and loss.] We release ourselves to enriching relationships, infinite life and each other, and we bring the celebrations and anticipations of what is possible in the remains of the day, hoping to provide encouragement and hope to those we meet along the way.

Amen.

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