30 Days of Love: 24/30
It seems I have a tendency to offer to blog on the day when 30 Days of Love asks for a prayer. Last year, I offered this prayer, which drew inspiration from my high school years.
I struggled to write it, as I often struggle to pray. You see, I grew up in a tradition where there were prayers to be memorized and recited and those were the ones I knew. Formulas that, as a child, I didn't really understand, though I've come to appreciate them as an adult. Extemporaneous prayer, however, whether public or private, was something elusive. I didn't know how to do it.
What I didn't know then was that prayer was for me and not necessarily for anyone or anything else. Even public prayer, to me, is about sharing authentically what I have to share and not what I think will impress others. In this case, my prayer is hope: for me, for you, for the larger movement. As I was writing this reflection, I was mulling over what words I might share publicly that would constitute a prayer to 'share the love' and was struck by perhaps an unlikely source.
On this day of our 30 Days of Love, I offer a prayer inspired by RuPaul's signoff on every episode of RuPaul's Drag Race: "If you can't love yourself, how in the hell are you going to love somebody else."
May we learn to love our whole selves.
May we learn to love ourselves so that we in turn can love others more fiercely.
May those others receive our love and also love themselves, to then in turn go out and love others.
Let us be part of an ongoing cycle that exponentially adds love to the world.
So may it be.
Amen.