100 Days of Wisdom: Wisdom Day 11 — Sometimes the Most Powerful Prayer You Can Offer is to Speak Your Needs

Wisdom Day 11

Sometimes the Most Powerful Prayer You Can Offer is to Speak Your Needs

Read about the 100 days of Wisdom™ Project by Tonya Marie

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A hardness we can’t see, cold and rigid, begins to form between us and the world, the longer we stay silent about what we need. It is not even about getting what we need, but about admitting, mostly to ourselves, that we do have needs. . . .  Paradoxically, asking even for the things that no one can give, we are relieved and blessed for the asking. For admitting our humanness lets the soul break surface, the way a dolphin leaps for the sun.” ~ Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening (8/15 entry)

Every day I write. And every day I share my writing in some form or fashion. Sometimes I share because I think or feel something I’ve learned will help others. Other days I share to foster connection and community.

And then there are days like today, when I write as a form of catharsis. Today I write for myself because it is often said you teach what you most need to learn. Selah.

Nepo’s quote above was a divine reminder not only to recognize and accept that I have needs but to give my needs a voice. Making my needs known to others who may be willing and able to meet them is, of course, one lesson. But his more essential point is that I also need to admit to myself what I need without getting caught up in the who, how and when chatter of my ego that leads me to deny that I am in need or to doubt that my needs can actually be met.

But the truth is the one Source — the Creator — has infinite resources (people, places, things) available but we have to be open and willing to receive in unexpected ways that don’t fit neatly in our own plans.

One Source, many resources divinely equipped to make ways out of “no way”.

Wisdom Lesson #13: A Lesson from Sarah Ban Breathnach — Ask for what you need!

[I originally posted this in the SHINE section of www.bythespirit.net. Reprinted with permission.]

“Today start asking. You see a woman with a great haircut? Ask where she got it. Ask for the name of a great paint color in a home accessory shop, a fabulous recipe from a hostess …. Ask for a deadline extension. Ask for the day off. Ask for a raise. Ask when the next sale will be. Ask Spirit for a daily portion of grace. Ask Divine Wisdom for operating instructions. Ask your guardian angel to manifest holy assistance. While you’re at it, ask for a miracle.” ~ Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance [June 3 passage titled “Ask, Ask, Ask”]

Recently Sarah Ban Breathnach, author of the nineties phenomenon known as Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort & Joy, returned to a seat she’d occupied and indeed owned at that time; a seat across from Oprah Winfrey to discuss spirituality and finding the miracles in the mundane.

Decades having passed since the last time, now in 2012 both women are in a different place and space. Sarah is a proverbial Phoenix rising out of a series of devastating personal and professional losses and Oprah is in the midst of her own challenging life transition from a daily talk show to 24/7 programming as a network owner with The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). This time Sarah’s purpose and intention in her face-to-face with Oprah on Super Soul Sunday (covered in a recent ByTheSpirit.net post) was to share the wisdom of all that had transpired in the years since her initial rise to fame and fortune and the “fall” from its purported grace.

Her story of extreme loss (of all her wealth and, for a time, herself) was both heart-breaking and life-affirming for me for so many reasons. Her reflections on her journey were both encouraging and cautionary.  Her willingness to expose her “brokenness” in front of the millions of us (literally) who’d placed her on a spiritual pedestal and who soaked in her Simple Abundance wisdom like a dry, brittle sponge that absorbs water again, was awe-inspiring. Her honesty and humility seemed to make her advice and her wisdom so much more relevant, accessible and authentic.