The Only Prayer You’ll Ever Need

Thursday mornings are reserved for my weekly prayer call with my prayer partner, Danny. This week, the weather forecast promised an amazingly perfect summer day, so I suggested to Danny that, rather than talk on the phone, we meet for a bike ride along the lake.

We didn’t need to exchange our usual prayers because, all around us, Mother Nature was in full exaltation: the air was cool, the sky was crisp and blue, the water sparkled. We felt as though we were receiving a prayer rather than giving one.

It was a perfect exercise in gratitude. It reminded me of the saying by Meister Eckhart: “If the only prayer you ever speak in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.”

In that spirit, today’s blog is short and sweet and is all about the simple thank yous we have to offer one another.

I received a very special one from a woman named Michelle, who said she is healing from a betrayal and heard my conversation with Candice Wu on the Embody Podcast.

“Thank you for magically appearing in my life when I needed it the most!” she wrote, “I am inspired by your journey!”

Michelle likely doesn’t know that her kind words are an answer to my prayer. When I finished The Buddha at My Table I decided that what I most want is to be a message of hope for anyone struggling to find peace. I want to be the book in someone’s lap that lets her know she’s not alone.

And because we’re not alone, because we’re all as perfectly intertwined as the sky and the wind and the water, I hope you’ll join me in sending a quick prayer to Michelle as she journeys toward her stronger self.

I hope you’ll find, like I have, that our stronger selves thrive on gratitude.