Prayer

Help me talk myself out of:
    Feeling depressed because nobody is there:
        To listen.
        To touch.
        To lick.
        To like.
        To love.

Help me to confront:
    I feel threatened
    By what someone did.

    I feel stressed
    By what I failed to do.

    I feel anxious
    By what I might do wrong.

    I feel:
       rejection.
       disappointment.
       misunderstood.
       unheard.
       ignored.

    I feel terribly terribly alone.

Help me muster strength:
    Open up a bit of vulnerability
    And share my feelings.

    Risk disappointment
    And reach out to someone.

Help me break free of paralysis:
    over fear of losing what I have.
    over failures in spite of best efforts.
    over the apparent lack of meaning:
       in my work.
       in my life.

Help me make new habits:
    Manifest:
       strength and sensitivity.
       confidence and humility.
       vulnerability and self control.
    Listen to:
       rejection and find better matches.
       positive comments and accept them.
       negative comments and act on them with balance.
    Live for myself with concern for others.

Help me make a life I love.


	13 October 2000
	by Bill Cattey
	Notes on this poem.

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This work by William D. Cattey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.