Become a prayerful person!

Prayer is a simpler and more complicated than we often think it is. There is a wonderful passage in a wonderful novel, Reservation Blues, by Sherman Alexie. 

The story’s central characters are young American Indians living on a reservation in Washington State. The main character, whose name is Thomas Builds-the-Fire, walks outdoors one night, under the stars:

          “Hello,” he said to the night sky. He wanted to say the first word of prayer or a joke. A prayer and a joke often sound alike on the reservation.

          “Help,” he said to the ground. He knew the words to a million songs: Indian, European, African, Mexican, Asian. He sang “Stairway to Heaven” in four different languages but never knew where that staircase stood. He sang the same Indian songs continually but never sang them correctly. He wanted to make his guitar sound like a water fall, like a spear striking salmon, but his guitar only sounded like a guitar. He wanted the songs, the stories, to save everybody.

          “Father,” he said to the crickets, who carried their own songs to worry about.

          The prayer of Thomas Builds-the-Fire is basic, honest, open and direct. His prayer is the prayer of his heart. Thomas Builds-the-Fire is a teacher of prayer and honesty, and a teacher of how to be happy.

          The best prayers are the most honest prayers. So nourish your happiness by praying, but pray from your heart not from your head. Looking at a tree. Say, “Help.” Look up at the stars in the night sky. Say, “Ah” or “oh”. Stand naked before a full-length mirror and say, “Thank you.” Stand there until you can say it and mean it.

          This may strike you as perplexing, but there are times when the most honest prayer in the world may take the form of language you almost never use—profanity, swearing, four-letter words. Look at something you think is ugly, blight on the landscape, say. Tell the Divine Mystery how you feel about it. “From your lips to God’s ears,” goes the old Jewish saying.

Nourish your happiness by talking with someone else about prayer. Tell a friend what you think about prayer. Be honest. When do you pray? Why? Do you pray only in “holy” situations or circumstances? Or do you pray where prayer is appropriate, in the midst of your ordinary life? Do you pray about cleaning the house, earning a living, paying the bills? Do you pray in the middle of a physical exam?  These are the finest of all times to be aware of the presence of the Divine Mystery at the core of your being. Pray not in your words, but with a sigh – a prayer sigh.

          Be aware of your constant communion with your Creator, who loves you with an unconditional love, any time at all. Tell God a joke—as long as your joke is not about a priest, a minister, or a rabbi. Be happy.