When I was being praticularly bratty as a teenager, I would often respond to my parent’s corrective actions with the exclamation “Well, I didn’t ask to be born you know!” When going through particularly trying times as an adult, I would say the same thing in jest to God in prayer. I’d add to it the fact that Jesus never experienced marriage or raising children or pastoring a church and he got to leave at age 33! I have relied a lot on my deep belief that God has a great sense of humor. I will be very disappointed if I have been mistaken on this score.
With this background, I was very amused and heartened by this prayer I read in Paramahansa Yogananda’s commentary on the Bhagavad Gita: “Heavenly Father, I did not wish to be created, nor did I wish to be placed in proximity to alluring evil temptations. Please, O God, since You created me and put me to the test of life, without consulting me, bless me that I use my power of free choice to strengthen my will and to follow the path of freedom and not the path of delusion.”
I love that prayer! I hope it encourages you as well.

I’ve been keeping the silence on this website for quite some time. My daughter’s wedding, her graduation from grad school, family and friends visiting have all taken my attention outward. At the same time, I’ve been “keeping the silence” in my daily spiritual practice. For anyone who has known me even a few years ago, you know that silence has had to be a spiritual practice for me because it does not come naturally! Name the subject, I’ve got an opinion and am sure you are just dying to hear that opinion!
Not so much these days. Life has had a way of humbling me and I’m not so sure my opinion or even my musings are necessary for anyone else to hear. In fact, I so often gather new information that I find my opinion is merely a vapor, evaporating as quickly as it arose.
Have you ever noticed what Jesus said to those he healed? “Keep silent….don’t tell anyone!” I’ve been pondering this for some time, several years in fact and here’s my “opinion” at this moment in time: When I keep silent, there is time for the experience or the insight to take root in my soul and to become a part of me. When I speak too soon, I lose the lesson and give away the power of God’s grace. I become distacted by another’s opinion of my experience and become confused and anxious, missing the joy of grace.
I think of my children at Christmas time. When I had picked out something for them that took much thought and clearly had been longed for, my joy was in the giving. And if they ripped open the gift package, just glanced at the present and rushed on to the next one, the gift seemed lessened. I wonder if God has that experience when we recieve God’s grace and are unable to just sit with it and to silently bask in God’s love.