When will we take our masks off?

By Susan Rowland

When will we take off our masks?  When will the front line medical workers feel rested and relieved? When will they feel restored from the day to day intensity of service and care? When will the division of pandemic procedures cease to be what drives apart rather than brings us together?  How do I manage the need to stretch my heart and provincial mind to recognize how small the world really is and how similar we all are? How do I even think of these questions without even including the many issues that trouble and unnerve us this day?
 
Breathe. Take another breath and yet again. With this prayer may you sense the Presence of the Holy One who has the more compelling questions for the unique individual you are. Perhaps, you might consider listing what may be weighing on your mind and use this prayer as a means for comfort in such uncomfortable times.  
 
This prayer by Ted Loder in his book “Guerrillas of Grace” provides an opportunity to pause, listen and let go. 
 
 Guide me into an unclenched moment 
            
            Gentle me,
Holy One,
Into an unclenched moment,
                        A deep breath,
                                    a letting go
                                                of heavy expectancies,
                                                            of shriveling anxieties,
                                                                        of dead certainties,
            that, softened by the silence,
                        surrounded by the light,
                                    and open to the mystery,
            I may be found by wholeness,
                        upheld by the unfathomable,
                                    entranced by the simple,
                                                and filled with the joy
                                                            that is you.