Each day when I enter my sanctuary, my place of prayer, I take a moment to sit still. I still my mind, so that I can feel the spirit of divinity and embrace it as it flows through me. I feel the presence of my Egun. I feel the support of my Egbe. I feel the power of my Ori. I feel the strength of Orisa.
Then when the time is right, I speak. I call it prayer.
Spoken words have power. Spoken words carry the energy of the deepest desires of our hearts and places them in the atmosphere. Spoken words call on the universe to hear and obey. Our intentions are packaged in the words we speak.
One thing I have learned about prayer is that it helps me to bring myself to a place of acceptance of what is. Prayer changes me. I let go of the expectation of prayer changing anyone or anything else. I learned this very valuable lesson on the night of my daughter’s automobile accident. After getting the phone call that she had been seriously hurt, the very first thing I did was fall to my knees and pray. I begged God to spare her life. My daughter died that night and I stopped praying for years after.
As I now understand, a more effective prayer would have been one asking for the courage to accept what I felt in the core of me was unacceptable. It took me a while to understand that my daughter’s path had led her to the end of her natural life and mine had not. I was advised by several people not to question God. I did not grant that request. I questioned everything, especially God and I am glad that I did. In allowing myself the freedom to question, I was able to go through the painful process of grieving without guilt or fear of where it would lead me. I learned how to be comfortable with my reality and speak the truth of what was living deep within.
Little did I know at the time that I was building a firm foundation of being able to reach in and pull out the truth, regardless of what it is, without criticism. I was learning how to live through a situation in which I had no power to change and ask for and focus on what I could. It forced me to place my energy into what I could do and learn to ask for the strength and courage to do it. I had to learn to speak for what I knew I needed to heal.
Now that prayer has become a critical part of my everyday life, I am learning how to pray effectively. I am learning to speak and pray for what is necessary for me to learn, grow, thrive, survive, accept, embrace and change.
I am finding that these prayers are always heard and always accepted. Ase.
Ifayinka 