”My beloved God, I lay before you the memories that haunt me, the anxieties that perplexed me, the despair that frightens me, all my frustrations. Help me. Help me. Forgive me. Help me to discover your forgiveness in these memories and know that your peace exists. Touch me, oh my beloved God, and fill me with your light and your hope. Open my heart to communicate with you more deeply. Help me to feel your loving presence. Open the doors that need to be opened and close the doors that need to be closed. Set my feet street upon your straight path that leads to my completion, my happiness, and my everlasting peace. Amen.”
Oh, welcome. Today’s prayer is to help you heal from any past experiences that may be creating some kind of difficulty for your heart and for your heart to open completely.
The story that I have to share with you today is a personal story. Many years ago, I worked in a children’s hospice program, and although many people still look at me and say, ”How could you do that work?”, I was actually very grateful for it and found it very fulfilling because as stressful as it was, each time I went to the hospital to visit the children, it always left me feeling just appreciative of the beauty in which God works because there’s always doors that we can walk through, and we never know which door God is going to open for us.
I remember one day I was walking through the hospital, and I passed the doors leading to many, many different departments and different places that the children were depending on the seriousness of their illness. Some, oh, the children were having a hard time breathing, and they had these breathing masks on, and another door that I went through, some of the kids were children who had childhood cancer, and they were spending their lives sort of battling this disease that for most adults terrifies them. The children were very spontaneous in the way they were dealing with it.
Every day I saw people come and go through all of these different doors. Once there was a room, a door where one of the children was actually dying. I looked at this … She was a little girl. She was in a crib, and I looked at her, and she just looked at me and she said, ”Tell my mom not to be afraid. Everything is good.”
The parents were very, very sad, but I just kept walking to each and every child and just noticing the beauty and the care that everyone had been showing them. Each day that I went in, the weeks and the months in the year that I worked there, I kept on seeing signs of hope and good news, and also, you know, some hard times and some difficult times.
But every time that I walked, in a strange way, there was something … Just immense gratitude for what I was experiencing in my life, for the love that the doctors and nurses and the staff were showing the children who were in this hospice care, and believe it or not, many of them didn’t die, even though they were there in hospice. They were able to stay alive, and who knows why, but that’s the mystery.
There are so many experiences and so many doors that we can walk through in life that other people may have far worse experiences than we have, and we could easily be in that situation. So today, as we pray, pray for strength to open the doors that you face, to close the door on the past, to thank God for the doors that God spared you.
Before I get to the poem, I wanted to read you a poem from Rumi. It’s called God’s Garden. He says, ”Lord, the air smells so good today, straight from the mysteries within. The garden of God, the tress in their prayers, the birds in praise, the first blue violets kneeling.”
So with that, let me share with you this prayer. I would recommend to do this prayer before you go to bed at night.
”My beloved God, I lay before you the memories that haunt me, the anxieties that perplexed me, the despair that frightens me, all my frustrations. Help me. Help me. Forgive me. Help me to discover your forgiveness in these memories and know that your peace exists. Touch me, oh my beloved God, and fill me with your light and your hope. Open my heart to communicate with you more deeply. Help me to feel your loving presence. Open the doors that need to be opened and close the doors that need to be closed. Set my feet street upon your straight path that leads to my completion, my happiness, and my everlasting peace. Amen.”
May your life, may your wellness grow in fulfillness until your heart overflows. Thank you for being with me today, and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.
Maxine Salima Adelstein M.Ed., D.D.
Salima helps people to discover and embody the deep truth of their beauty and essence through her work as a healer and teacher. She is a Murshid Murabbi Ruhi, (Sufi Spiritual Guide) in the Shadhilyya Sufi tradition, a rank given to her by her guide, Sidi Muhammad al-Jamal. Her heart is filled with the joy and compassion that result from living in the heart of God.
