To me, prayer shouldn’t be separate from daily life, but should arise spontaneously from it, inspired by the ordinary sights, sounds and experiences that surround us. That was the raison d’être behind my book Touching the Seasons, as well as for the other books in the series, Heaven Touching Earth, Touching Down and Touched By His Hand. In the following, for example, the sight of a cream cake leads to a prayer for Lent concerning temptation.
The cream cake
‘Naughty but nice’, they called it,
and they were right,
for though it wasn’t the best thing for my health,
it was delicious nonetheless,
every mouthful a delight –
enough for me to have another,
the next day . . .
and the next . . .
and the next.
Some things, Lord, are indeed innocent enough,
genuinely ‘naughty but nice’,
but others are different,
the dangers they bring greater than I realise
and any pleasure less fulfilling than might first appear,
either bringing happiness that doesn’t last
or won at a cost to others,
causing them hurt and sorrow.
Teach me, then, when temptation comes,
to look beneath the surface,
and beyond myself,
and to consider where yielding might lead.
Amen.