For World Suicide Prevention Day, September 10, 2026

Exodus 15:1b-11, 20-21 (often considered to be archeologically the oldest words in the Bible)

Miriam didn’t drop the tambourine
on the long run from Egypt,
or throw it away as extra baggage.
She must have known
joy would be needed and a song.
For all of us who are family or friend
of someone at risk of dying by suicide –

that is – all of us,
as we are running alongside
giving support, offering hope, worrying,
watching, watching, watching,
giving advice,
hunting for good resources,

don’t forget the tambourine!

Hold some ankle-deep-in-mud joy.
Be that one who stops to sing
and won’t stop singing
while others are passing over
on an unexpectedly open way.

And, even for those of us who grieve today,
sing, too, this faith–
God also finds those who drown
and holds each of them in promised hands.

Miriam, Pippa Blackall, Art ion the Christian Tradition

Hear my Prayer …s

God who is all ears and love,
here my many prayers as I wake to news.

I pray for Hawai’i in the winds,
as Hurricane Lowell bears down
on Kauai and Niihau,
in this nightmare month of storms.

I pray for the families grieving
for five who have died
after the blazing Amazon cargo plane
crashed in Florida and for five more
being treated for injuries.

I pray for the tensions rising
because of tariffs
between Canada and the US
neighbors and so long allies
across a long thin border
of history and respect.

All day long I pray, heart hurting,
but my deepest assurance
for all the troubles of this fragile life

is that the heartbreak of your love
gathers them in tenderness.

amen.

Labor Day Prayer, 2026

God, we give you thanks for Labor Day
and ask you to help us carry its empathy and care
for those who work in dangerous,
poorly paying, or health-sapping jobs,
beyond this holiday weekend
and into our personal and church lives.

We are grateful for those who grow food,
and those who manufacture
clothing, shoes, homes, automobiles,
those who work in retail settings,
schools, libraries, health care,
those who protect others
in armed services and police forces,
fire fighters, coast guard,

and those who clean buildings at night,
stock shelves, change sheets in motels,
those who write newspaper articles,
commercials, speeches for others,
poetry, textbooks, home appliance manuals,
draw cartoons
or paint lines on streets.

We are grateful for so many more,
all who need work or a day off,
or respect and recognition,
for all the things that they do,

or respect and recognition simply
for who they are.

Amen.

Anticipating Leaf-peeping

Tourists come to these woods
in cars and buses that choke highways,
and mighty glad we are
in New England
for the dollars that keep our diners,
the mom-and-pop motels,
the state and national parks,
viable for the locals
to enjoy the rest of the year.

They come for foliage,
though their guides point out
that guessing peak is always … “guess.”
They insist on great splashes of color,
hill after hill painted
in amber and gold,
scarlet, ochre, umber, even purple,
a landscape’s dying splendor.

But every year I look carefully
for the first leaf to turn
and the last to drop,
for the single leaf that catches
this light of sunset,
or crunches under my foot.

I want my time leaf by leaf –
the tweet of the season,
the haiku,

a friend’s numbered breaths.

Photo by Adam Stuart on Pexels.com

“I always cry at weddings”

A Muslim wedding ceremony does not include
“till death do us part” as do the weddings
with which I am more familiar.
The Nikah Vows include Ijab-o-Qabul,
meaning offer and acceptance by both parties.

The new US strikes in Iran,
were not so clearly targeted yesterday.
They were ,”Broader and more intense,”
certainly not offered and accepted,
Ijab-o-Qabul,
and those of us in the United States
need to know that among those dead
were civilians, including those
who were celebrating a wedding.

In this country, we should be crying.

Love by Lap — Guest Post from Mark Saline

 LOVE BY LAP                   

A  child’s soul is not made of cells, but is born in grandma’s lap and craddled in her voice… Wherever the child goes in years to come, grandma’s lap and voice go with them. If a prodigal child needs to come home again grandma’s lap will open to them, and her voice is what their soul needs to hear for healng: ‘WELCOME HOME, MY CHILD!’ … ‘The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.’ – John 1:14… In differences & conflict, fathers & men tend to exile Different Others, and mothers & women tend to reconcile Different Others. Mothers & grandmothers reach, love, weep, and befriend across boundaries. As a metaphor, it is more true than not, to suggest a child’s first experience of ‘god’ is the unconditional love and non-anxious presence of grandmother. Eden was grandmother God’s lap of life where everyone belongs;  ‘And it was very good.’

Prayer after the Grand Canyon Flash Flood

God, who offers hope in times of danger,
we pray for fifty people still missing
in the flash flood in the Grand Canyon,
that they may feel calm
and find ways to identify their presence.

We pray for speed, safety,
and even for right-guessing,
for those searching against the clock,
as more rain is predicted,
and against the fear that the longer
the lost are unfound, the risk rises
of more injuries and more casualties.

We pray for the family and friends
of the victim of this natural disaster,
and for all those who wait for news
of their friends, their family members,|
and for Park Service Staff
reaching out to give strength and comfort.

Be present at Bright Angel Canyon,
with the very hope of its name. amen  

Prayer for Nepal and Tibet

For help in the midst of floods
and safety from mudslides,
for shelter as ice pours down
from the heights of the Himalayas,
we pray.

For rescue of those separated
from home and family,
and recovery in safe spaces
where families can find one another,
for tourists stranded and frightened
and those who wait for news
of loved ones from their distant homes,
we pray.

For food and shelter shared,
for the generosity of the world,
for medical crews and trained searchers,
for leaders in China and Tibet,
for leaders in Nepal,
we pray.

For compassion in those near and far
for news shared with the ones
in all nations
who work to slow the heating
and melting and destroying
of precious places high and low,
and the setting aside
false promises of safety,
by those who profit from tragedy,

we pray. Amen.

Remembering Dolly Parton

“I will Always Love You,”
is the song I think of most,
because she sang it
the year that I was married,

but I also had a mother like hers
so “Coat of Many Colors”
made me cry, smiling all over,
and “9 to 5” still makes me laugh
and these are times
when we all need really
a lot of laughing …
maybe I’ll see the movie again,

but today, waking up
to read that Dolly Parton died,
“Islands in the Stream” is the one …

“that’s what we are,
no one in between …
and we rely on each other …”

We remember Dolly Parton
generous, loving,
making music for years and tears,
and leaving the world
with her big-hearted cover
of all the best gospel songs …
“Precious Memories,”
“Heaven’s just a Prayer Away,”
“Church in the Wildwood,”

and it just won’t be Christmas without her …
“Go, Tell it on the Mountain.”

And, so, we remember Dolly Parton,
and that she sang to the world

that even sadness
is always really, “Amazing Grace.”

Improv on Exodus 3

Before the ten commandments,
before the dance with the tambourines,
before the plagues,
before any particular religion
and a name for God

(after all, the people of Asia and
most people who eventually built mosques,
must have heard it, too.)

There was the barefoot directive —
take off your shoes
and touch it –

the earth under your
(not somebody else’s) feet,
notice
this ground, bush, fire.

I’m talking to you –
not because of your impressive brain,
compassionate heart,
not the beautiful singing voice,|
rippling muscles, spiritual depth,
perfect complexion, long hair.

You with the toes,
are you listening?

This is the holy moment.

Photo by Feyza Yu0131ldu0131ru0131m on Pexels.com