Ocean Prayers

oceanprayer

The other day, I overheard a woman say, “When I lived by the ocean, I never bit my nails.”

It made me smile, not just because I’ll be going on vacation to the ocean not so long from now, but because I completely understand. The ocean calms me: the sound, the sea. If there is any place where worry and problems melt away and I feel closest to God, it’s with my feet in the sand.

As I was driving home, I realized that when I pray, I feel that same relaxation, that same calming wave cover me, whispering, “It’s all right. It’s all right.”

Yesterday was a hard day. I think I aged a decade. First, at the crack of dawn, my mom’s cat was hit by a car. And then, we got a call that my husband’s mom was in an ambulance, on her way to the hospital.

As I went to bed, anxious to put the day behind me, I found sleep by imagining the beautiful horizon of the sea and how it disappears into eternity, taking with it my worries and fears.

- Sabra Ciancanelli

Danse Macabre

It gets better.
Stay in between my synapses
tap it out in Morse code
if need be.

It gets better.
Take me outside to look
at the birds flying in unison
taste the salty air
by the boundless ocean
feel the sand between clenched toes.
It gets better.
Take my mind off what I know
is too big for me
this thing I always dance around
and never mention.

That's why there is faith.
It's the bridge between
the impossible and the infinite.
Please get me and mine safely across.