Dear God, take away this judgment that sits like a dark cinder inside my chest.

I see others through such a bitter lens – let me shatter this dark glass and see the warm, yellow glow all around me.

Set me free. Let me love.

(Letter #1339)

Dear God, let my field of labor be inside myself. Let all my efforts turn towards improving those things within me that are flawed and wanting.

These garden plots within me need continual weeding, lest they become overgrown.

Let me take care with my inner life, dear Lord.

(Letter #1338)

Dear God, give — let me give and give again. When I run out and have emptied my reservoirs and turned out my pockets, let me dig yet deeper and give.

O! How miserly am I. I hoard. I lay by stores to protect my future. Yet there is never enough for me to have complete security — and so I give away nothing. I place myself before others.

If I am to be a source of love and light, Lord, let me learn to give.

I have so far to go.

(Letter #1337)

Dear God, I say I desire to do your will; I pray for this. What stops me?

Sloth keeps me idle. Fear freezes me in place. Pride holds me back from opening myself to criticism. Gluttony drives me to hoard my resources, that I may enjoy them abundantly later.

When I pray: relieve me of the bondage of self, that I better do thy will – these things, then, are what make those chains. My pride, my self-regard, my flaws.

Lord, let me shed these things like an unneeded cloak. At the end of a long day, I drop my worn garments to the ground in a pile. These flaws in my nature, that I wear like armor through the day, let me drop them.

Naked, let me labor in the sunshine, doing your simple chores.

(Letter #1336)

Dear God, let me see past the surfaces of this world.

Those around me are filled with frothy activity. Let me be slow-moving today. Let my reactions and emotions be deliberate. Let me not add agitation.

Let me be a source of comfort and understanding, not a source of confusion and disquiet.

Let me offer safe harbor today.

(Letter #1335)

Dear God, grant me knowledge of how I might be useful. I so often mouth these words without truly meaning them. Instead, I am concerned with self – my comfort, my safety, my success.

Grant me a better vantage point, Lord. Let me see what is needed that I can provide. Let me do that.

(Letter #1334)

Dear God, you take my burdens from me if only I will lay them at your feet. In this way you relieve me, your child. But you do more: you show me that their weight was always imaginary. These fears and woes that I had to be convinced to relinquish are just mist.

Not only do you grant me relief, but you remind me of the power you have already placed within me. I never needed aid; I could walk free and erect at any time.

Surveying my current woes and cares, let me learn your lesson. Grant me awareness of the freedom I already have.

I have no need to wait for deliverance, Lord: I am already free.

(Letter #1333)

Dear God, there is safety here, in the quiet with you. When I rise and circulate, this circle of calm may dissipate. I may be assailed. Or I may encounter elation.

Lord, when I am flying about, subject to so many forces and feelings, will I be able to recall this quiet moment? This, here, is reality, not the buffeting winds. Those are illusion.

Tomorrow with its tumult is fantasy.

Let me inhabit reality today, sweet Lord. Let it be timeless.

(Letter #1332)

Dear God, grant me just enough vision to see where my next step ought to fall.

I so desire to see the whole road, my prideful wish for total knowledge. Grant me humility – let my wishes be tempered. I dream of success and power. Limit me, that I may depend all the more upon you.

(Letter #1331)

Dear God, how can I be certain that the sun will rise? And yet it ever has. When there are clouds, I know that the sun hangs in the sky to shine upon me. I need not see it.

Lord, I ask for so many signs from you. I ask and ask, an ungrateful child. I fail to notice the sun already drying my wet garments, warming my bones.

Grant me, sweet Lord, sight to see what is all around me. Growth and life, teeming. Sunshine. Your love glowing in the core of each of my fellows.

God, let me greet my brothers and sisters. Some may be dispirited. Let me pull aside their cloaks, that they may see their own glowing hearts.

Let us shine on one another, in anticipation of the clouds parting.

(Letter #1330)