On A Soft Prayer... Whispered

When I look up to the royal sky
I see her, a tranquil queen
behind a scren of clouds. The sun!
For thousands of ages may she shine.
For thousands of ages may we serve her.
May we serve her with reverence.
May we serve her with love.

--Nihongi, Japanese sciptures

We cannot predict just when a storm will come or when it will end. We only know that, as in nature, our own lives change ceaselessly; big changes and small, violent changes and gradual ones, but changes nonetheless.

There is a song by a really old hippy folk rock band (if you dare call them that), Jethro Tull, on an album called Stormwatch. Somehow I am reminded of this song (Dun Ringill) as I read this text for the meditation, yet another that reminds up that while the weather is showing us that spring is just around the corner, there is still a little bite in winter yet. This is the stormwatch. This is the 'hoping for the best but preparing for the worst' mentality that sadly many of us live (and feel we have to live) by. It's a very sad state of affairs. It's even more sad when it proves to be a true state of life. Sure you can live optimistically, embracing every experience, ready to take the rough with the smooth without complaint, but honestly there comes a point when you get 'blindsided' by the incoming storm so often that exhaustion takes over and you just end up buffetted and out of control.

Where then is the 'soft prayer, whispered'? Is this the word 'breathe' - sincerely meant - on the lips of a friend, or is this the 'small mercies' that we thank the heavens for, that help us to keep going 'just one more day' or to just take 'one more step.'?

I've experienced a few of these 'sudden blindsiding storms' just recently, but also the balance of the small mercies, and the 'friends' words. Like the child that, knowing I was feeling ill last Thursday, had made me an 'I hope you feel better' card and gave it to me on the courtyard before the National Anthem was sung. And the best... last night, seeing our little Zenny using his leg again after hurting it - the vet said it was broken... and hoping against hope as we did that it was just a bad sprain. He was walking on it - he was using it - he even tried walking in his wheel. It was a ray of sunshine after a lot of worry. And work? We won't even go there right now... save to say the 'ego domino effect' is hard at work.

The weather's on the change...
Lines join in faint discord
and the stormvwatch brews a concert of kings
As the white sea snaps
At the heels of a soft prayer...
Whispered.

Dun Ringill - Jethro Tull