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

Prayers for Kiev

The news tells us ballistic missiles
are “raining” on Kiev, and we weep.

Let us pray for those who grieve
fifteen civilians killed yesterday alone,
more than forty wounded.

Let us pray for a school damaged
and a children’s hospital
and wonder what bombed-out heart
makes a target of these.

Let us pray for forty-thousand people
who slept in the subway last night,
or lay awake in fear,
and will return again tonight.

Let us pray for the bare grocery stores,
destroyed food warehouses,
and the people walking down aisle
with empty carts …
and their children’s empty stomachs.

Let us pray for the losses of today,
on the front line of ordinary people,

but hold on to some breath,
for every day is growing worse.

Kiev Subway

Guest post from Mark Saline

REMEMBERING THEM  

I remember them, way back when, and feel them again, what happened to us then, and what might have been… Their haunting never ends, the deaths, our griefs, never mend. Godsent  family at rope’s end, we hung in pain I can’t suspend… I pretend, but can’t deny our blend. I am them, and not them. So many emotional loose ends, which I tend and contend… They were my world, but worlds end. In emptiness I descend, remembering them. My phantom limb heart bows to them. They, my prayer and daily bread, never end. Amen.

Mark writes: Pic & poem are my family of origin – an extended family. By age 14, four people in the pic died : mom & grandpa died of liver cancer two weeks apart. Two uncles died a year later. The poem is about grief.

Reader, If you don’t have a way or place to put words that matter to you out into the world, you may send them here for me to share at giftsinopenhands@gmail.com. I am grateful for such gifts. Maren

The Midwives’ Call

I’ve preached the midwives and how,
without Shiphrah and Puah —

Moses would have never grown up,
to be rash and tongue-tied,
observant enough to notice
the bright, hot Spirit in a common bush,
humble enough to go barefoot,

and so on and on —
blood on the lintel, water parted,
manna and listening to his father-in-law,
two sets of engraved holy stones,
the view
from the mountain of it-ends-here,
to the one of transfigure-this,

but I never realized
that the story isn’t about this at all.

The story is not
about Shiphrah and Puah saving Moses.
It is about Shiphrah and Puah
who saved every baby boy, every time.

Notice how many men of Moses generation
departed in the Exodus.

And the footnote that the two midwives
quit to raise their own families …

Code for:
Pharaoh-forced early retirement.

Shiphrah, Puah, Jochebed, Miriam, Pharoah’s Daughter, and the infant Moses
Date:before 245 Dura-Europos Synagogue

Eat like a Hobbit

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”  J.R.R. Tolkien “”The Hobbit”

I like to eat like a hobbit,
and I don’t actually mean seven times a day,
though second breakfast is a favorite.
I like to eat with one hand full
of the plate I am passing
to someone else,
two feet running to the pantry
to find what I planned for tomorrow
and give it to today’s
unexpected guest.

Go ahead – read the book
or watch the movie,
about Bilbo Baggins welcoming
dwarf after dwarf,
worrying on the long journey —
whenever his stomach rumbled –
about how hungry
someone else might be.

Eat like a hobbit –
you’ll need it
because someone needs you
to go on an adventure
that makes the “shires” of the world
safe from all the dragons
who like to sit upon their gold.

(There are some favorite books I read often and “The Hobbit” by JRR Tolkien is one … much more than the more adventurous “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. Tolkien certainly saw the dragons gathering and wrote with countries and leaders in mind. This fall I feel like there is a lot of reason to leave the comforts of Hobbiton I have and to go “there and back again.” and yes, below is a photo of Hobbiton … I have been there, the film set in Aotearoa/New Zealand)

Prayer for the Big Island of Hawai’i and the Path Beyond

God, who walks on all waters
and reaches out across all storms,
we pray as Hurricane Lala makes landfall
on the Big Island now
and we pray throughout this Saturday
that its path through Maui,
Oahu and Kauai,
may continue to diminish.

Care for those who gather food,
inform those in the most danger,
especially elders,
and prepare to respond.

We know you watch
your children in Hawai’i
in the high winds and great floods,
and stay with the track
of wind and fear across the islands,

Amen.

This satellite image released by NOAA shows Tropical Storm Lala over the Pacific Ocean, near Hawaii, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. (NOAA via AP)

Prayer for Flores Island, Indonesia

Gracious God, we know you are present
amid the damage and danger on Flores Island
caused by the earthquake last night.

Care tenderly for the families
of the thirty-eight people who have died,
and work with all those
who continue to search
through the rubble for other victims
and pray to quickly find survivors.

We are grateful that there will be
no tsunami adding to fear and loss,
and pray for your blessing
on those who give medical help,
comfort the sorrow of those who grieve,
and offer shelter and food
for those who have lost their homes.

amen.

Prayer for the Midwestern Flooding

Come, God, as the dove
that names the end of flooding
for these long four days,
in Indiana, Iowa, Illinois,
throughout the Midwest,
and of the threat of derecho,
blowing roofs, trees, wires,
and the hearts of people.

Care for those who restore power
that they may be safe,
and those who find what they have lost
and begin re-building with hope.

Open the hearts of those
who can care for the homeless
and the injured,
and those who watch and warn
those who live in uneasy times.

amen