By Cathy Hird

"I feel like I should pray," said the young woman, "but I don't know what to say." As I considered the grief and loss she faced, I did not think it would be easy for her to choose words. I suggested an action, an embodied prayer instead.

Churches have focused on wordy prayers but that is not the only way to express our need or to reach for the divine. Sometimes words get in the way. Telling God what we think we need can be a way to control the options. We give God a name and establish our image of what or who the divine is. Then, we tell this image of God what we think God should do.

Some prayer practices help us to let go. Hindu practice teaches us to use a single word to focus our minds and quiet our spirits. The chosen word is repeated in silence while the pray-er sits comfortably still. "Quieting the monkeys of the mind" with the repeated mantra enables the pray-er to be in the presence of the divine.

There is an Orthodox practice in which a one sentence prayer is recited in the mind all the time, no matter what you are doing. You notice you have stopped and simply start again. The Jesus prayer, "O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner," makes space for the wisdom of the divine to surface in our minds as we face the pilgrimage of daily life.

First Nations spiritual practice reminds us that prayer is more than asking: it is also giving thanks. Traditional practice includes laying down tobacco when harvesting food or medicines as a way of giving thanks to the earth and her creatures for the each gift.

In labyrinths movement enables meditation. The path is laid out, and the person walks the circle to the centre and back to the beginning. The pray-er may take a particular question into the meditative walk. (There is a lovely garden labyrinth anyone can use outside Georgian Shores United Church.)

Actions can embody a prayer. When we hold something fragile, we cup our hands around it. Holding our hands together in this gesture, we can imagine the need that is on our mind, place the person or issue in our hands and then lift our hands upward to hand the concern over to God. Remember that the divine is all around us, we can also open our hands, letting go of our worry, assured that God will catch and hold the person, the issue.

Sometimes we do not so much want a connection with a Divine Spirit - perhaps because we are not sure there is a God - but instead what we seek is wholeness and balance in our spirit. Practices like Tai Chi and Yoga are designed to help with this...but that is another story for another day.

One last personal story for this column. One March day when grief made it hard for me to find words, I lectured myself that I was a minister and ought to be able to pray. Then, I took my own advice and decided to embody a prayer. I took a piece of cedar and drove to Inglis Falls. Standing on the bridge, my mind was empty of words so I just imagined giving my concerns to God as I dropped the piece of cedar. It did not land in the flowing water, but floated sidewise to land on a bank of snow. I couldn't even do that right, I thought.

A small voice seemed to say, The snow is melting this weekend, Cathy. Great, sometime in the next three days the bank holding my prayer would melt and my cedar-prayer would be swept over the falls without warning. I smiled. Oddly, that seemed about right.

Then, because I like being in control, I picked another piece of cedar, went back to the absolute centre of the bridge and dropped this one right in the water. Still, the first one was the real prayer with the comforting sense that I did not have to do anything right. I would be carried on the ever flowing stream of life and God.

Cathy Hird is a farmer, minister and writer living near Walters Falls.