This Week's Prayer
Dear Earth and Waters, Air and Sky,
The letter to the Ephesians, written by either the Apostle Paul or a later author strongly influenced by Paul, reminds us:
“For we are what he has made us, created...for good works,...prepared beforehand to be our way of life.”Combining and adapting some alternative translations, we get:
“For we are the universe’s handiwork, its poem, its work of art. We are the product of seen and unseen forces of Nature, the poetry of the cosmos etched into life and etched on our lives. Created to do good works, to live the good life, as from the beginning has been our purpose.”Dear Earth, waters, air, and sky: we are your Poem, written with contradictions, confusion, wounds, scars – written to love and be loved. Like a poem just begun, we do not know how it will end.
May the people of Cuba, who have been experiencing some of the biggest anti-government protests in decades, be comforted and fortified in their exhaustion, rage and longing for the Poem of their lives to become one of freedom, equality, peace and plenty.
May the people of Haiti be comforted and fortified in their distress over the recent assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. May the global community have wisdom in what help is truly needed. May the Poem become one of justice and peace.
May the people of South Africa be comforted and fortified amidst violent deadly protests, riots and looting following the jailing of former President Jacob Zuma.
The Poem of planet Earth is hurting. May all the beings and ecosystems be fortified and headed for recovery.
Our hearts and thoughts and prayers are with the Western United States where oppressive heat and fires rage on for a third week.
And with India where monsoon season lighting strikes killed dozens and injured many last weekend.
And with Florida manatees dying of starvation in record numbers due to polluted waters killing off the seagrass that is their food.
And with the 11 eleven countries where only 1% percent of the population is currently vaccinated.
And with the places around the world experiencing second, third, fourth and fifth waves.
May we have the courage to live into our creativity -- to make real the Poem we want to see.
We give thanks for conservation efforts in Kazakhstan where there has been restoration of the population of the once critically endangered Saigia Antelope.
We give thanks for the European Union’s sweeping raft of climate change proposals aimed at carbon neutrality by 2050.
We give thanks for the health care workers on the front lines of the Covid-19 struggle.
We are daily invited to pick up the pen of our lives and co-create with You, Earth, Waters, Air, and Sky.
Amen.
Covid Review
The Worldwide numbers are not reliable, and likely are greatly underestimating the actual prevalence of Covid-19. These numbers may nevertheless give us an indication of trends.
New Cases
New cases per day, worldwide:
Week ending Jun 17: 367,417 per day.
Week ending Jun 24: 367,429 per day. Change from previous week: 0.0%
Week ending Ju1 1: 377,798 per day. Change from previous week: +2.8%
Week ending Jul 8: 417,459 per day. Change from previous week: +10%
Week ending Jul 15: 482,453 per day. Change from previous week: +16%
New cases per day, US:
Week ending Jun 17: 13,014 per day.
Week ending Jun 24: 12,458 per day. Change from previous week: -4.3%
Week ending Jul 1: 13,874 per day. Change from previous week: +11%
Week ending Jul 8: 17,028 per day. Change from previous week: +23%
Week ending Jul 15: 28,704 per day. Change from previous week: +69%
New cases per day, NY+NJ+CT:
Week ending Jun 17: 881 per day.
Week ending Jun 24: 762 per day. Change from previous week: -14%
Week ending Jul 1: 795 per day. Change from previous week: +4.3%
Week ending Jul 8: 868 per day. Change from previous week: +9.2%
Week ending Jul 15: 1,357 per day. Change from previous week: +56%
Deaths
Deaths per day, worldwide:
Week ending Jun 17: 8,501 per day.
Week ending Jun 24: 8,279 per day. Change from previous week: -2.6%
Week ending Jul 1: 7,757 per day. Change from previous week: -6.3%
Week ending Jul 8: 7,739 per day. Change from previous week: -0.2%
Week ending Jul 15: 7,803 per day. Change from previous week: +0.8%
Deaths per day, US:
Week ending Jun 17: 340 per day.
Week ending Jun 24: 317 per day. Change from previous week: -6.8%
Week ending Jul 1: 258 per day. Change from previous week: -19%
Week ending Jul 8: 224 per day. Change from previous week: -13%
Week ending Jul 15: 262 per day. Change from previous week: +17%
Deaths per day, NY+NJ+CT:
Week ending Jun 17: 20 per day.
Week ending Jun 24: 16 per day. Change from previous week: -20%
Week ending Jul 1: 16 per day. Change from previous week: 0%
Week ending Jul 8: 11 per day. Change from previous week: -31%
Week ending Jul 15: 13 per day. Change from previous week: +18%
New cases of Covid-19 are rising. In the US, there were 69% more new cases this week than the week before. While the rate of new cases is barely more than 1/10th of what it was last January, the 28,000 new cases a day that we're now seeing is more than twice what it was two weeks ago.
Nationwide, the proportion who are fully vaccinated reached 45% a month ago, and since then has barely budged. It's still less than half the population. (In NY, it was over 50% a month ago, and is now at 56%). Our tri-state area (NY, NJ, and CT) has 1/10 of the US population, but is seeing only 1/20 both of the new cases and of the deaths.
Practice of the Week
Failure Gratitude.
This summer, we’re looking at spiritual practice in the “give it a try” category. These practices aren’t the sort to do every day, and they aren’t helpful slogans to keep in mind throughout your day. Maybe you’ll only ever do this practice once every 5 or 10 years, but if you haven’t done it, do.
This week: make a list of all your life's failures. If you’re in the middle of a major one right now, then don’t list that one. List the past failures. Give yourself a couple days to make the list as complete as you can.
Then go through the list, noting what you gained from each failure. Perhaps it taught you something which you then have used to succeed. Perhaps it brought about a change (a new town, a new job) which you came to be grateful for. Perhaps it set you free – liberated you from some idea of what you thought your life was supposed to be that just wasn’t serving your flourishing.
If it taught you a lesson you then used for a subsequent success, that’s nice – but the even greater gift of failure comes when it frees us from the tyranny of success. Without failure, we might imagine that success and achievement was all there was to life. What a miserable existence that would be.
Then: say thank you to each one of your failures – and be as specific as you can about what you are thanking each one for.
What gratitude do you have for each of your failures?
For the complete post, see, "Failure Gratitude."
See also our SPIRITUAL PRACTICE DIRECTORY
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