Father Thomas Keating once shared that the most powerful prayer in the human language is a single word – ‘help’. And yet, all too often we fail to oblige its presence – fearful that our need may be viewed as weakness. Instead, we create a barricade to protect our heart – hardened by the circumstances of our past hesitations and failure.
In doing so, we begin to draw away, to isolate from that which is needed most of all – an acceptance of our humanity.
We are broken, every single one of us. And our fate, subsequently uncertain. It’s only when we relinquish these illusions of control that we may begin to appreciate a sense of trust formed only when the mind is fully present. To live, as described in the ancient buddhist texts, absent the anxiety of our own imperfection.
When we ask for help, we are asking for acceptance. What we fail to realize is that it’s already there. That this brokenness, itself, is what helps us to flourish.
“Just as we open and heal the body by sensing its rhythms and touching it with a deep and kind attention,” Jack Kornfield writes, “so too can we heal other dimensions of our being.”
And, through the utterance of that simple prayer – ‘help’ – we begin to make room for a new hope to arise.
In peace, my sweet friends…
Namaste ❣
