Tuesday Prayer for 1/03/12

Thank you, God, for happiness
but, thank you for not having to be happy all the time.

Thank you for those rainy days of pensiveness tinged with numbness;
Those breaks from presence and vividness and the exhausting attempts to sustain something like joy.

Thank you for the melancholy that asks the "whys" and "what fors;"
that rubs away at placidness like hands concussively kneading dough.

Thank you for that pounding heartbeat of anger that rises up like a tide and leaves clarity in its scoured ebb.

Thank you for the sadness that tells the other truths about change;
where cheerleading hope is calmed and the losses - the costs - are counted and honored.

Thank you even for fear but, frankly, not as much.  May it expose threats but not create them; help us react proportionally but not overreact; may it save lives and not end them.

Thank you even for loneliness, I think.  It does seem to help me find you, know you, seek you, trust you...

Thank you for these gifts.

Thank you, God, for happiness
but, thank you for not having to be happy all the time.
Amen.