Posts Tagged ‘men’

 

This Man’s Heartbeat

Posted on: August 1st, 2018 by Alden

Alden on his triycle (circa 1960).

Another prayer in my series for men, inspired by my work with The ManKind Project. Here are links to two of more of my prayers for and about men: “The Descent” and “This Man.”

This Man’s Heartbeat
Let my heart beat
Gentle as a brook,
Gentle as a boy,
Seeing the world with wonder.

Let my heart beat
Strong as the tide,
Strong as a man,
Living these days with passion.

Let love flow through my veins,
Grace and yearning,
Humility and awe,
Kindness and power,
The melody of love,
The harmony of joy,
A baseline of truth,
The tempo of life.

Let my heart beat,
Gentle as a brook
Strong as the tide,
Gentle as a boy,
Strong as a man,
Seeing the world with wonder,
Living these days with passion.

© 2018 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

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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 Source: Solovy Family Photo

Ordinary Men

Posted on: June 3rd, 2018 by Alden

This is a meditation for men on the power of being ordinary… together. My other prayers for men include: “For the Lost,” “Fire Within,” “We Share the Same Pain” and “The Descent.”

Ordinary Men
We are ordinary men,
Who go to work and come home to rest,
Who earn, support and provide.

We are ordinary men,
Who stand with our families and friends,
Teaching our children
To work with their hands,
To use their minds and their eyes,
To make music and sport,
Laughing together in moments of fun.

We are ordinary men,
Whose eyes twinkle and hearts smile with delight
At the sight of our partners,
With our days full of small pleasures.

Let us make a secret pact
To be ordinary men,
Each one,
Being ourselves.
Nothing more. Nothing less.
Not a hero. Not a superman.
Not a legend in shining armor.

Let our stories be simple.
Love. Work. Play. Rest.
No one will write the ballads of our lives,
But our dreams will live on for generations,
And war will vanish from the earth.

© 2018 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

New here? Subscribe here to get my newest prayers by email.
Share the prayer! Email this to a friend.

Postscript: This is another prayer for men inspired by The ManKind Project.

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 Source: MKPUSA

Mikeitz 5775: For Our Brothers

Posted on: December 18th, 2014 by Alden

keep-calm-and-respect-your-brother-2This is a prayer for our brothers. In this week’s Torah reading Mikeitz, Joseph begins the process of testing his brothers to see if they have changed. They appear to have learned some lessons about honor, trustworthiness and family. This prayer is from a series of prayers about rejoicing in family relationships. It appears in my book, Jewish Prayers of Hope and HealingTo listen along as you read, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows. For Mikeitz 5773, I posted a social justice prayer called “Against Hunger.”

 

For Our Brothers
For our brothers,
A chant of honor.

Brother, to have you is a blessing,
A gift of endurance and strength.
Your courage is my shield,
Your humor, my cloak,
Your humility, my guide,
Your vigor, my hope.
Your victories witness your confidence,
Your devotion
And your zeal.

You are my brother by birth
My brother by choice,
My brother through pain
And my brother in thanksgiving.

G-d of brotherly dignity and grace,
Bless our family with gratitude
And our brothers with enthusiasm, vitality and wonder.
May their devotion inspire us to justice and mercy.
Bless our lives with energy and prosperity
So that we become a source of healing in our lives
And in the world.

Blessed are You, G-d of brothers,
Who delights in brotherly love.

© 2010 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: See also: “For Our Sisters,” “For the Patriarch,” “For the Matriarch” and “For the Family Historian.” Note that this prayer is written to be used by both men and women to honor their brothers. “For Our Brothers” first appeared on this site on Oct. 2, 2010.

For usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” For notices of new prayers, please subscribe. You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter. If you like this prayer, please post a link to Facebook, your blog or mention it in a tweet.

Photo Source: KeepCalm-O-Matic

Vayishlach: The Descent

Posted on: November 28th, 2012 by tobendlight

And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.” – Genesis 32:25

Sooner or later every man faces the trial of his life. This meditation is a metaphor for the inner journey, the inner struggle, the battle to find holiness and a new name. It’s another in my series of prayers and meditations for men.

The Descent
When your time comes
And you hear the call
To become a man of power and wisdom,
A warrior and a king,
You will descend beyond the shadows
Into the black cliffs of your soul,
Where fear stalks the hours,
And rage laughs at the abyss,
Where shame waltzes with pride,
And grief howls, unrestrained, with pleasure.

You will reach a narrow ridge
Above the hollows where other men were lost.
You will crawl on scree,
Cutting your hands and knees,
As you press hard
Against the trail,
Against the wind.

You will enter a cavern of darkness,
The unseen color of nothingness,
Where your voice echoes with dread,
And your heart beats with longing,
Where your breath smells of remorse
And your ears ring with lies and deceit.

When you reach bottom
Your enemy will attack,
With skill and cunning,
For you have set free the torment within,
The power of your anguish and your guilt.
The night will last beyond the rhythm of natural time
Until you forget if you are the holiness or the profane.
Only then the grip of unrighteous fury will weaken
And succumb to your strength.
Wounded but victorious,
You will be blessed by fire from the torch of heaven.
Its light will blend with the coming dawn.
In that moment you will finally see
The face of the man you fought.
You will know in your bones
That you must take him back with you into the light,
For it was you who invited him on the journey.

© 2012 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: Here are three more prayers and meditations for men: “My Work Remains,” “For the Lost” and “My Heart Knows What It Needs,” as well as a link to a list of all of my prayers for and about men.

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: Artable

Powerful Men

Posted on: May 6th, 2012 by tobendlight

Here’s another prayer in my series for men. It’s a brief call to action — inspired by the men of ManKind Project around the world — summoning men to use their power in service of humanity. To listen along, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

 

Powerful Men
Men of honor,
Men of strength,
The world yearns for you.
Your wisdom, your courage, your vitality.
The call has come.

Men of conscience,
Men of understanding,
Summon the energy that is deep in your belly,
Steeped into your bones,
That heats your blood and fires your eyes,
And hold it as rod and staff,
Guide and compass,
To build, to heal,
To honor, to bless.

G-d of Majesty,
Teach me to use this power
In service to others
In the name of holiness and love,
So that I become a source of compassion and grace,
A light of awe and wonder.

© 2012 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: Click here for a list of prayer and meditations for men. Two of my favorites are: “My Courage” and “My Work Remains.”

Please check out my Meet the Author video 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 Source: Photo is © Gregory Tapler Photograpy; poster designed by Boysen Hodgson for MKP

Fire Within

Posted on: January 21st, 2012 by tobendlight

1-heart-on-fireThe collective Jewish response to grief is joy, to attempt to live in joy no matter what. Not always an easy path, but it leads to a deep healing that allows the full spectrum of emotion into our lives. Joy and grief are welcome, because they are part of accepting G-d’s world as it is. Living in joy, with all our strength and energy, is part of claiming a stake in G-d’s future world, a world of complete happiness and peace, a world that is yet to come. This piece will appear in my forthcoming book, Song of the Spiritual Traveler. To listen along, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

 

Fire Within
My burns
Cannot be seen on my flesh.
They are in my lungs
And in my eyes.
What medicine will halt the smoldering,
The smoke that suffocates from within?

My cuts
Cannot be seen on my skin.
They are in my heart
And in my throat.
What medicine will heal the bleeding,
The tide that floods from within?

Ancient One,
Release me from the fire and the knife:
The flame that consumes hope and joy,
The blade that destroys time and seasons.

Holy One,
Rock and Shelter,
Your medicine is love.
Your salve is holiness.
Your balm is life.

Blessed are You, Adonai our G-d,
Eternal Source of wholeness and healing.

© 2012 Alden Solovy and tobendlight.com. All rights reserved.

Postscript: I originally conceived this as a prayer for men. Many of us experience our internal struggles – fears, losses, shames, angers – as fire and knife. Although I don’t know if the metaphor holds for women, this piece seems more universally prayer for healing than other of my prayers for men.

If you like this prayer, post a link to your Facebook page, your blog or as part of a tweet. For usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” For notices of new prayers, please subscribe. You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter. Please consider making a contribution to support this site and my writing.

Photo credit: zoeyryanthoughts.com

Becoming

Posted on: December 9th, 2011 by tobendlight

long_road-aheadThis meditation is meant to be used in private contemplation as a simple reminder that it takes work to become the men of love and action G-d intends for each of us to be. I use it. I hope that other men will use it, as well. To listen along while you read, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows. Here is a list of more prayers for and about men.

Becoming
I have not achieved the man I am meant to be.
This, G-d of Old, is a blessing.
There is so much more I can become.

I have not achieved the heart I am meant to have.
There is so much more love to behold.

I have not achieved the sight I am meant to use.
There is so much more glory to perceive.

I have not achieved the strength I am meant to hold.
There is so much more work to complete.

I have not achieved the man I am meant to be.
Thank you, G-d of Old, for the challenge and the struggle,
For the will and the desire,
For the fortitude and the purpose.
There is so much more You want me to become.

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

Postscript: Here are related prayers for men: “My Work Remains,” “For the Lost” and “My Heart Knows What It Needs.” And here is a list of more prayers for and about men.

If you use this prayer, please click “like” on this page and subscribe. Please take a moment to post a link to your Facebook page, your blog or mention it in a tweet. Thanks. For usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!

Photo Source: Ellen Simon’s Employee Rights Post

 

This Mirror

Posted on: November 13th, 2011 by tobendlight

It takes courage to see me to see myself as I really am, with my strengths and my weaknesses. This prayer is a reminder – to me and other men – that I can only become a man of love and action if I see myself clearly, forgive my lapses and bless my being. To listen along, click on the triangle in the bar below (website only). The text follows.

This Mirror
With love in my left hand
And courage in my right,
I approach the mirror of my life to see
A sage and a fool,
A hero and a coward,
A king and a peasant,
A prophet and a heretic,
The rich texture of my being and my becoming.

Oh to be the summer breeze
Warmed by the gentle morning sun.
Oh to be the lazy creek,
Shaded by branches and leaves.

This mirror sees the light of holiness within,
The gifts I’ve been given,
The gifts I return to earth and sky.
This mirror reflects radiance and wonder,
A rainbow of experience and emotion,
A luminous and divine spirit.

Oh to be an eagle soaring on the wind.
Oh to be an owl soaring in the night.
Oh to be that man in the mirror.
Oh to be me.

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

Postscript: Here are related prayers for men: “My Work Remains,” “For the Lost” and “My Heart Knows What It Needs.” And here is a list of more prayers for and about men.

If you like this prayer, post a link to your Facebook page, to your blog or as part of a tweet. And don’t forget to click “like” on this page. Thanks. Please subscribe. For reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” in the right hand column.

I am a King: A Meditation for Men

Posted on: October 24th, 2011 by tobendlight

King Warrior WordleIn every man there is a king, a beautiful, wise and powerful man who sees, heals and blesses. Sadly, sometimes we become tyrants, and sometimes we abdicate our duties. This is a meditation to remind myself and other men that all of us have a deep well of spiritual gold. We are men of honor and integrity. We are kings in service to our families, our loved ones, ourselves and the world. Kings in service to the Holy One, G-d of All Being. To listen along, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

 

I am a King: A Meditation for Men
I am a king.
Not the king.
A king.
Like all men,
Born with a seed of majesty,
A gift of the Sovereign of Heaven.
This gift is mine to nurture,
To love,
To hold sacred in service to G-d.

Rock of Truth,
Some men fear this gift,
Hate it, reject it,
Abdicating Your call to heal and create.
Some men grab this gift with zeal,
Tyrants abusing their power,
Destroying and devouring
Land and people.

Rock of Life,
Make me a king with a heart of gold,
Holding my life and the world
As precious gifts,
To honor and to cherish,
To build and to sustain.

Rock of Love,
Bless me so that I bless.
See me so that I see.
Hear me so that I hear.
Then, G-d of Old,
I will be Your servant on earth
All the days of my life.

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

Postscript: Check out these prayers for men: “My Work Remains,” “For the Lost” and “My Heart Knows What It Needs,” as well as a list of other prayers for and about men.

Please consider making a contribution to support this site and my writing. For usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” For notices of new prayers, please subscribe. You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter.

Photo Source: Honey Badger Heart

This Man

Posted on: August 7th, 2011 by tobendlight

This Man PosterIn my observation and judgment, many men have a common experience of not feeling good enough or worthy enough for the blessings we receive. I, too, have spent much of my life not feeling worthy. This is a prayer/poem for men about “being enough” and is part of a series of prayers for men including “My Work Remains,” “For the Lost” and “My Heart Knows What It Needs.” To listen along, click on the triangle in the bar below. The text follows.

 

This Man
These hands are enough.
Enough to hold,
Enough to heal,
To fix, to plant, to tend.
These hands are enough.

These arms are enough.
Enough to embrace,
Enough to carry,
To lift, to dig, to work.
These arms are enough.

These eyes are enough.
Enough to see,
Enough to guide,
To smile, to laugh, to cry.
These eyes are enough.

This heart is enough.
Enough to love,
Enough to care,
To hope, to yearn, to break.
This heart is enough.

This man is enough.
Enough to heal,
Enough to honor,
To respect, to challenge, to live.
This man is enough.

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

Postscript: Check out these prayers for men: “My Work Remains,” “For the Lost” and “My Heart Knows What It Needs,” as well as a list of other prayers for and about men.

For usage guidelines and reprint permissions, see “Share the Prayer!” For notices of new prayers, please subscribe. You can also connect on Facebook and Twitter. If you like this prayer, please post a link to Facebook, your blog or mention it in a tweet.

Photo Source: Photo is © Gregory Tapler Photograpy; poster designed by Boysen Hodgson for MKP

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