Making Sense of Prayers

By Paulette Jackson, LPC-MHSP

Have you ever considered … Prayers they taste like chocolate comforting and sweet to savor And how … Like snow They fall upon the chaos covering it with blankets of forgiving white

And sounding like silence … They are the music of the soul birthing love’s heir And their resonance calls forth … A radiance untouched a hope the image of a rose filled with the fragrance of holy desire a reminder of eternal promise Yes … Prayers they taste like chocolate the flavor of a dream come true

In this day and time, it is not unusual for families to live considerable distances from each other. While many of us make treks to drive or fly long distances to see family, we have also had to accept the realities imposed by the miles –like foregoing the casual visits of dropping by, coming over for dinner, or hardest of all, not being able to be available to offer a helping hand or a listening ear, in times of stress. The above poem was inspired by such a situation. While phone calls, texts, and prayers offer support and connection, I wanted to do something tangible –so I sent chocolate truffles. And the image of the rose, is Rilke’s image, who was fascinated with the circling of the rose. He saw the petals as eyelids, covering a resonant silence, an alert sleep, because of the way the petals curve into each other. He also saw it as a contradictory little flower –both awake and asleep, not something, but neither an empty nothing. To Rilke, the rose was a world-inner-space, a term used to often speak of the essential space within the heart of a human being, or a “body of nothing but radiance.” Maybe the prayers we offer, really do wrap those we love and care for with the felt sense of a comforting blanket, music, resonance, the peaceful presence of hope and –the image of a rose. ~ Paulette Jackson