A New Covenant and Prayer for 2019




I spent my Thanksgiving weekend writing.  It's a gift I give myself every year as I participate in NaNoWriMo.  And this year, I found the answers I've been searching for in this writing for 15 years.  It's nowhere near ready for publication, but I feel like I've done my world building and character building enough that I'm ready to re-write these books now.

In this year's novel, they finally discover a cure and a vaccine for a bioweapon developed thousands of years ago.  The problem was created by a few, but it takes the gifts of many, of representatives  of all the groups on the planet to fix it. And in doing so, they create a new covenant among them.  Those words are specific to the people and challenges of that world, but I loved them enough that I wanted to adjust them for me.  

This is my covenant and my prayer for a new year:  
Fully aware of the blessings and responsibilities that come with my gifts, I serve this planet, its inhabitants, and its history. It is my duty to preserve, nurture, and sustain life here.
My creativity and my spirit are intertwined. My gifts will support me and sustain me, and they ask that I continue to help them be born and be known in this world. 
I have seen the humanity in the monsters. I have not forgotten who they once were or who they someday may be. I pledge to remember the gifts and blessings of those who stand before me now, just as they are. 
We come from many traditions. We have made different vows and covenants. I bring the best of who I am to this new covenant. I promise to help build the Beloved Community. I ask that you invite me into this world regularly to participate, so that I do not become insular and forget those vows to which I first committed myself. “Keep fresh before me the moments of my high resolve.” (Howard Thurman)
We were called here, each of us individually at the time that our gifts were most needed. I honor those who dedicated their lives to preparing the way for us and teaching us. I promise to place at the center of my life the work of creating communities where we can grow in love, and heal our wounds - physical, mental, and spiritual. 
May I always remember that all things are connected, that our lives are inseparably intertwined, and that it is only the delusion of separateness that keeps us from recognizing who we really are and what we may be. May I continue in this intimate fellowship with all that inhabit this beautiful world.
I pledge to join you in the protection and nurturing of all that is this world. Remind me that I can not do this alone. Forgive my hubris and the damage I cause because of it. Invite me to the table again and again that I may know the depths of the “love that will not let us go.”
May I be the voice of those who cannot speak. May I learn to see and heal the pain in my own heart. May I learn to see and heal the pain in the hearts of others. May there always be a seat at the table and may my doors ever be open.  
It will not be an easy life, but it is the life I choose. May I choose it over and over again, every day, every hour, every minute.  


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