Olga's Poetry & Thoughts

I have started reading a book called "Help, Thanks, Wow." It is basically a how-to guide for prayer, geared towards spirituals and skeptics alike. The book tries to answer the difficult question: How do we pray? The author, Anne Lamott, recalls her childhood, growing up in an atheist household where only rock bands were worshipped and the New York Times was a temple. Feeling alone, lost, and caught in existential despair, Lamott "snuck off" into the attic to pray to God for help. Prayers for help humble us. They make us feel that the world is out of our control. The cosmos does not act in accordance with our wishes, and our prayers are not answered in the way we would like them to be. Thomas Merton's prayer reads: "My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me" (Lamott 33). Just by reading the "Help" chapter, I realized why I have trouble with uncertainty. Because it is admitting defeat. It is admittin...

What a blessing it is to be part of this world Part of a bigger plan, something bigger than us It is humbling, rather than terrifying to know That our senses are limited and we know not much at all What a blessing it is to sail through life altogether Through its murky waters, calm waves and sea storms Knowing we are on the same ship, in the same sea The same love passes, one smile to another There is more to life than can be seen, or dreamed of Or tasted, or calculated, or measured, or interpreted A love that is tasteless but sweet A hope that is invisible but tender A spirit that is alive and forgiving What a blessing it is, to be part of God's plan