I wrote this after meditating on the sand dunes of the Arava, a rift valley in the southern Negev. The meditation was led by staff from Kibbutz Ketura and Ben Gurion University. The assignment: go off in silence to think about the desert and what it evokes. Then, after 20 minutes, write about it. To listen along, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

Oh You Hills, Oh You Sands
Speak to me
Oh you hills.
Did my father pass this way?
Did my mother draw water
From some secret well?
Did I dream of angels and blessings?
Or will the man I am
Wrestle all night
With the man
I am yet to be?

Speak to me
Oh you sands.
What ancient beauty have you captured?
What silent yearning springs up
To water my heart?
What treasures do you
Still hold dear?

Let me know the music of your valleys.
Let me hear the heart beat
Beneath your thousand stones.
Let me remember
The ancient promise of home.

Speak to me
From the place where
Desert and sky meet
In perfect silence,
In perfect wisdom,
In perfect love.

© 2011 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: Here are additional prayers about Israel. For the sticklers among you, this photo was taken in Nachal Peres in the Negev near Masada, not in the Arava.

Please check out my ELItalk video, “Falling in Love with Prayer,” and This Grateful Heart: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day. For reprint permissions and usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” To receive my latest prayers via email, please subscribe (on the home page). You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo credit: Alden Solovy