There was nothing in this clearing, and my fellows filled it with story and song. Creation without substance, passing from one to one to me to another.

Together we sing.

Did you sing me into being, Lord? Today, let me be a sweet song for the troubled ears of the world.

(Letter #2,135)

How is it that I come to you so reluctantly, and fallen, yet you comfort me and make me well with sweet balm?

How undeserved are these gifts.

Let me then, Lord, live a life of thanks. Let my selfish aims fall away.

I will come to you.

(Letter #2,134)

I may find treasure today, yet still, too, the winds howl. Shall I be eager and expectant, or fearful and sullen?

Lord, I easily find reason for any sentiment. I am the author of my own response. Let my day, then, be writ in love.

(Letter #2,133)

You made me for this day, and this day for me. I fear these upcoming trials, each your opportunity to show me rescue.

Where I lack strength it shall be given. You will make me equal to the day.

(Letter #2,132)

This day, the same as any other, equal to the best and the worst. You are with me when the sun shines and when the rain falls. How dare I judge one or the other?

Let me greet this day as precious, Lord, the only one I am to have. Great treasures will be unearthed, great battles won and lost, while a calm breeze blows.

This day, you have given me oak and maple. Am I to burn or build? Let me make the finest table that I can.

(Letter #2,131)

Will you sit with me? I will sit with you. Let us draw near to one another. Let us glow on one another.

Later, let me pass on the ember.

(Letter #2,130)

I am alone on this high path, alone with you. Still I worry over what awaits me on my return.

I scarcely see the stones at my feet, fixed as I am on phantom memories and trouble.

Lord, let me attend clearly to where I am, and turn not my ankle. The sky is cloudless and the way back long.

(Letter #2,129)

Poison courses through me, thoughts of resentment and revenge. I sit atop a heap of imagine foes and dodge spears made of mist. What is worse, the weapons I wield are aimed inward.

I battle in my sleep, only to discover twisted sheets in the morning.

Awaken me, Lord, and let me see clearly. You have been holding me in your lap all along.

(Letter #2,128)

Over and over, you give me a gift of this moment. I accept it so rarely.

Lord, take away my distraction and wishful thinking. Let me see the moment unfolding. Let me do your will in it.

(Letter #2,127)

Let me live without need of courage, nor hope.

The sun rises on the plain; I cannot wish it away. Rains come; we will get wet.

You have placed me here in the middle of the storm to show others how to live in the downpour. What care that my body shivers? Let me not abandon my post.

(Letter #2,126)