Tea Room The 24th - San Francisco Painted Lady!

[Tee2072]

Welcome to the 24th incarnation of the One-Child Tea Room. Not that you only have to have one! Just so long as you enjoy chat, tea, coffee, cake!!

The usual rules apply - no bunfighting. If you like that sort of thing, go elsewhere.
Other rules: bring . Or .

Our ongoing voyage take us to one of San Francisco's Painted Ladies!

We've brought the Aga over, it's in the back in the cosy kitchen overlooking the back garden. The chintz sofa is in the front room, under the bow window! All of the pillows and duvets have come along as well!

What's that? The Priest Hole? It's just over there --> behind the bookcase!

Mellors is upstairs, preparing the bedrooms for naps and such.

The aspidistras are thriving as they overlook Nob Hill! The horses have found themselves stabled in the Garden, which is much larger than these places usually are in this city!

So come in and have a seat!

::tea hurries off to Powell Street to catch the Cable Car to Ghirardelli Square::

Yup, been praying on the prayer thread etc ...just awful...

I know :(

I read it yesterday and couldn't stop crying all afternoon. Held JB very very close for the rest of the day. I can't imagine the shock and disbelief the Edgar family are feeling. When I read the original thread (didn't post, just lurked) her OP was on Feb 23. I'm so shocked and horrified that this happened, three weeks later. And I'm also so, so angry - a child falling over from sitting is not normal!! I can't bear to go back and read again but it sounds like she got a bit of a run-around at first. :(:(

Could I ask what might be an awkward question... and please, I obviously don't want to offend anyone, so bear with me.

I was wondering, how does one pray?
I don't really know.

I wasn't brought up with any sort of religion. Was christened in the Catholic church but my parents left the church because of serious disagreements with its doctrines when I was very young. Never bothered me, I got to sit out any religion classes in primary school and the two years I went to Gymnasium in Germany. When we moved to Canada, they didn't teach religion classes in school.
I rebelled briefly against my parents as a teenager (more out of passive-aggressive teenage crapness and to have something to hold against them, than any real religious feeling) and researched religions, but lost interest pretty quickly :o, and then, when I was in university, started going to Mass with a friend - but again, not out of any religious feeling, but because they sing a lot during Catholic Mass and I love singing and church-type music.
Lost interest again, and then in my late twenties for whatever reason stumbled back to church and this time went through RCIA (the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults). Fell away from church again a few years later, but this time because I found I had my own serious reservations about Catholic doctrine, not least among them the role of women in the church, and birth control, and several dozen more. However, I still intend no disrespect to the Catholic church or any Catholics. I simply have found that in my exposure to a lot of Christianity (through friends of varying denominations) and other non-Christian faiths, that organized religions don't seem to fit me.

Sorry about the long background story.

But back to my original question, how does one pray?

I never felt in any way connected to the person called Jesus when I went through RCIA. He seemed somehow inaccessible to me. I could pray to Mary the Virgin Mother, somehow - it always felt to me that there might be a female spirit force that would possibly be listening to me... but "God" is such a nebulous concept to me - I know I believe in a power greater than Man, but I can't narrow it down to the concept of God. I believe in a universal force that's greater than all of us...

So I was wondering, when those of you who do pray, how do you do it? What do you think about? What do you focus your energy and thoughts on? Do you clasp your hands and kneel? Do you say a formulaic prayer or do you make up your own?

May I say again, I really am curious, and intend no disrespect whatsoever.
Thanks :) xxJM

I don't pray to anyone in particular, myself. I pray to the universe. I ask the higher power that is the entire universe for things. I have a universe list, like a prayer list, and before I go to sleep name those on my list and ask for good things for them.

I asked the universe for peace for Edgar's family last night, for example.

To me God is such an integral part of my thinking that I feel that God is there all the time and I sort of 'hook in' my thinking around Him. For instance, over Edgar's ds, it came no further than "Lord, oh Lord..." with tears, like all of us.
But also "thank you Lord" for the new baby.
Sometimes I pray formal prayer, like just before going to sleep I think of the prayer of Compline:"The Lord Almighty grant us a quiet night and a perfect end"
I carry a prayer stone in my pocket, a heart shaped stone, reminding myself that God has a heart, but not a heart of stone.
At the moment I can't pray for myself or our situation and am hugely thankful for the prayers of others.
I don't think it is in any way disrespectful to ask how others pray, it is quite a difficult thing to get your mind round and you need all the help you can get.

I don't know the answer to the question, either, but in recent weeks I have been really struck by Donki's idea (a Quaker one, I think) of holding people in the light. That really speaks to me.

Oh drat.

Ok, holding people in the light I can do.

DutchOma, I've been somewhat AWOL from the TeaRoom so don't know what is happening with you but for whatever it is.

Welcome Gisborne, I haven't seen your name around before, but I may have missed it (see above AWOLness). Would you like some or ?

Oh and Oma, meant to ask: did you mean I specifically need all the help I can get, or people in general, with respect to praying/ learning how to pray?

No, what I meant was that it was not disrespectful to ask, because everybody is entitled to ask for help with something they find hard.

Ah. Thank you! :)

I pray in different ways. A lot of the time I just talk to God and tell him what is on my mind. Sometimes I sing, particularly when a particular hymn says what I want to say. Sometimes I just pray a formal prayer, like the Lord's prayer, as it brings comfort when I cant think what to say. Sometimes I just meditate and see what comes to me.

I haven't read the thread to which you refer, but from your comments I think I share your sadness. I can't but feel the deepest sympathy for anyone who has to fo through such a terrible experience of loss and pain.

I think that Gisborne might be a women in disguise, you know...

JM, just go for it. Anything works. I chat to od in a completely random and disorganised way, just sharing life - good or bad. Others find a way that works for them.

I used to get told off in Guides for not going to the church parage often enough, I had to set an example as I was a patrol leader!

I only go to a church to see my daughter do stuff for Girls Brigade or perform in her school choir

evening all. spent much of today out on the hills. beautiful day, sun shine and quite warm. bliss.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!

Pourquoi, Tea?

Nothing important... Just had another heated 'discussion' with the man I mistakingly married!

champagne needed in this corner!!!

Christians believe God is omnipresent, therefore I can't see that you need to do anything special to pray, although closing your eyes and folding your hands may aid concentration. Muslims I believe feel prayer should be more formalised to show respect. Some Buddhists, I think, have bells and flags to send their prayers to their destination. There are probably as many ways to pray as there are humans.
I can't identify with Jesus either, but can feel some connection to Mary and God at times, and occasionally a particular saint when in a cathedral standing before a statue or altar.
I like the idea of holding someone in the light.
Traditional prayers such as the Lord's Prayer or Hail Mary can be very comforting when your mind is just too full of fear or sadness to ever imagine any peace ever again.

I spent much of the afternoon putting up a chicken cage with the man I mistakenly married. I do not deliberately do the opposite of what he intends; I am simply not telepathic. I cannot 'just lift it' because I am simply not strong enough. Yes, it was my stupid idea to have the house up on three foot legs. And no, I don't know how the chickens are going to go in either. They could jump. Or we can install a lift tomorrow. At least it wasn't me who forgot to plan for a door.

JM
How do I pray?
Not as well (or as often) as I need to!
I know that when I spend time "waiting in the light" I become better able to live my life day to day - and that "holding people in the light" involves holding them in my loving awareness and listening - sometimes becoming (uncomfortably) aware that we should be at least part of the answer to the prayer - that God works through people, that my hands should be in some small part at God's service.

There are probably at least as many answers to your question as there are people praying - since at different times and in different need, people will pray in different ways.

Like everyone else I can only answer for myself - but I sometimes find it valuable to read what answers others have found - here are some answers that other Quakers have given over the centuries... if you feel like looking. It may not speak to your condition (in Quaker phraseing) - but then again it may.

Tea Sympathy.

DutchOma - I don't know what your situation is. I can, and will, hold you in the light...

Amber - that scarf looks very fetching! And very appropriate for a horse show - do you remember Princess Anne's head scarves?
I always found them a very practical way of keeping the dirt of my hair when I was mucking out and grooming!

Serpent I have seen raised hen houses with ramps...

Hot chocolate and carrots all round! (Not mixed)

Oh dear Tea - I had one of those yesterday too over the most trivial thing imaginable and it descended into complete insanity so fast! DH is refusing to acknowledge a complete over-reaction on his part, of course.

Serpent, I was going to suggest a ramp too. Not that uncommon and the chickens find them easy enough to use.

Praying - I just do it as and when - to whoever/whatever - sometimes remnants of my childhood Methodist upbringing come to the fore, other times not.

DutchOma - another one who doesn't know your situation but happy to pray for you to have some resolution and peace with it very soon.

JM - I think the comment directly after Gisborne's will explain the situation there

How does one explain omnipresence to a 5 yr old? Is god on the floor and if so do we walk on god? This was of course asked in a whisper at a funeral.