Lately I’ve been reciting the Lord’s Prayer in the morning when I first wake up. Hit the alarm, sit up, start the prayer. The effect is something like putting into gear a car that is slowly rolling backwards down a hill. Lots of inner grinding and groaning as all the machinery aligns to head a new direction. In the space of a few seconds the inner litany has already begun and is picking up momentum. Even the first vestiges of my thoughts are eager to head to self-as-center-of-the-universe Land, and “hallowed be thy name” is about the best redirection a girl could hope for.

My favorite line in the prayer is, “thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” What a lovely thing to ask. I cherish the presumption in the request: that such a thing is possible, now, in the near-darkness of morning and in the many hours that stretch ahead. Today could be a perfect day.

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