{"id":3047,"date":"2016-12-04T12:22:38","date_gmt":"2016-12-04T17:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/?p=3047"},"modified":"2016-12-04T12:22:38","modified_gmt":"2016-12-04T17:22:38","slug":"sigh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/2016\/12\/04\/sigh\/","title":{"rendered":"Sigh"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"file-dec-04-11-58-41-am\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s no secret that I am a huge fan of, what I\u2019ve dubbed the most extraordinary spiritual rantist, Anne Lamott.\u00a0 The woman can turn a phrase and set my preconceived notions in motion and more often than not kick them to the curb.\u00a0 Her many books are all permanently embedded in my Kindle to be called up at a moment\u2019s notice because, well life happens and sometimes you need a more grounded perspective. Ms. Lamott would throw her head back and laugh at that.<\/p>\n

Help, Thanks, Wow:\u00a0 The Three Essential Prayers<\/a> is one of those go-to tomes (can you call a book a tome if it\u2019s on your IPad?) \u00a0\u00a0\u201c\u2026So prayer is our sometimes real selves trying to communicate with the Real, with Truth, with the Light. It is us reaching out to be heard, hoping to be found by a light and warmth in the world, instead of darkness and cold. Even mushrooms respond to light – I suppose they blink their mushroomy eyes, like the rest of us<\/em>\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

I have a friend who calls herself an atheist but I swear she prays because her use of the word Wow is reverent.\u00a0 It\u2019s in response to injustices and fabulously joyous moments alike. When she uses the word Wow it is either preceded or followed by the word, really! Or really??? I know she\u2019s not praying to a God or any type of deity but damn it sounds like prayer.<\/p>\n

The definition of prayer is a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God or an object of worship.\u00a0 However, it is also an earnest hope or wish. Period. No Gods or deities in sight.<\/p>\n

So if Help, Thanks and Wow are prayers can a Sigh be a prayer?\u00a0 If it\u2019s not about who you\u2019re praying to and it\u2019s about the prayer itself, can\u2019t that be so?\u00a0 I find a sigh is so spontaneous.\u00a0 It seems to come from a deep place, an exhale with benefits so to speak.\u00a0 It\u2019s a tiny relief valve, a surrender to what appears to be something that requires much more thought.<\/p>\n

I had the pleasure of spending time with one of my nearest and dearest people over this weekend.\u00a0 She is at once grounded and other worldly.\u00a0 Her reach is right into my heart and we could talk for hours on any and all subjects. Time spent with her is peaceful, heartfelt and kind. She exudes grace.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut grace can be the experience of a second wind, when even though what you want is clarity and resolution, what you get is stamina and poignancy and the strength to hang on.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

This we do for each other. When she left a sigh escaped me.<\/p>\n

In the end everyone needs some mechanism to accompany their earnest hope or wish.\u00a0 In any number of given situations a word or a sound may escape, with or without you knowing it. To me those are indeed prayers.<\/p>\n

THANKS have a good week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s no secret that I am a huge fan of, what I\u2019ve dubbed the most extraordinary spiritual rantist, Anne Lamott.\u00a0 The woman can turn a phrase and set my preconceived notions in motion and more often than not kick them … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[761,805,804,803],"class_list":["post-3047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-in-the-company-of-women-2","category-pause-points","tag-ordinarylegacymoments","tag-anne-lamott","tag-prayer","tag-sigh"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s27hQ5-sigh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3047"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3049,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3047\/revisions\/3049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ordinarylegacy.com\/word\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}