Here’s prayer/poem that celebrates both love and loss as essential elements of our lives. This piece appears in This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings from CCAR Press.
Every Beginning
Every beginning brings an ending.
Every ending brings a beginning.
Ancient One,
This is the joy and the grief,
The plenty and the famine,
The dance and the dirge
Of life
Alive and awake
In Your world.
How wonderful is this living?
How glorious the light from heaven?
How stunning the radiance that surrounds you
My beloved,
Holy and new, luminous with wonder?
How marvelous this place where earth and sky touch?
How strange is this dying?
How melancholy that one day we will
No longer hear sweet voices,
See sweet faces,
Share whispers and secrets,
Laughter and heartbreak?
How much more, my darlings,
Should we love today?
How much more, my children,
Should we savor and rejoice?
Every beginning brings an ending.
Every ending brings a beginning.
Blessed is G-d’s Holy Name.
© 2019 CCAR Press from This Joyous Soul: A New Voice for Ancient Yearnings
Postscript: Here are two of my favorite prayers about the spiritual journey: “Messengers” and “On the Trail.” Click here for more meditations in the voice of the Spiritual Traveler.
For usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” For notices of new prayers, please subscribe. Connect with To Bend Light on Facebook and on Twitter.
Photo Credit: Hasseblad
Tags: beauty, beginnings and endings, creation, faith, gifts, joy, love and loss, prayer of yearning, prayers of hope, redemption, renewal, spiritual journeys