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mat james wrote:If I was to pray, I would say/pray,

"Thy will be done".

That would be good enough for me.

Hey, that's part of the same prayer that I am trying to pray, part of what is known as "The Lord's Prayer". Oh how beautiful our heritage that we would have something like this in common.

I have no reason to not agree that saying those words would be good enough for you. I don't think that I have ever even come close to saying them with all the beauty and power that they can be said.

I am starting to see what you could mean when you said that you find prayer humiliating. You could be meaning that you will say it with such beauty and care, like it was the most precious gem that you have ever found, that it will be humilating to those killers in high places who say their prayers out loud when they hear from you.

Nice, Jack .

Mat ~ Timely, as things tend to be, I couldn't help but notice the words... hope this link works for you. This is the explanation that precedes the photos:

Subject: PICS of the road of death

Here's your new commute to work!



Stremnaya road is called the road of death and it's situated in Bolivia
THIS WOULD BE THE RIDE OF YOUR LIFE!!!! I BET PEOPLE PRAY HERE EVEN IF THEY'VE NEVER PRAYED BEFORE.

I tried to link the photos, but nothing works... so I guess you could Google or Wikipedia it for me [if you're interested]. Some stunning photos that came to me on it!


~ Lizzy

lizzytysh wrote:Stremnaya road is called the road of death and it's situated in Bolivia

The pictures are of a road in China apparently.

http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=115605

Manna wrote: I pray
and then I cry.
.

Try singing along with dylan singing
"Lord Protect My Child"

and not crying.

I am pretty sure that it is mostly children who bring us to prayer. It is the tears for them that we want to do so much.

For his age, he's wise
He's got his mother's eyes
There's gladness in his heart
He's young and he's wild
My only prayer is, if I can't be there,
Lord, protect my child

As his youth now unfolds
He is centuries old
Just to see him at play makes me smile
No matter what happens to me
No matter what my destiny
Lord, protect my child

While the world is asleep
You can look at it and weep
Few things you find are worthwhile
And though I don't ask for much
No material things to touch
Lord, protect my child

He's young and on fire
Full of hope and desire
In a world that's been raped, raped and defiled
If I fall along the way
And can't see another day
Lord, protect my child

There'll be a time I hear tell
When all will be well
When God and man will be reconciled
But until men lose their chains
And righteousness reigns
Lord, protect my child

Thanks, Jack. Same road... nearly the same photos... missing a couple where it shows 'passing'/'squeezing'/barely making it without toppling by another truck. Seems to be a lot of TRUCK traffic on the road. Only the most devout become drivers for the route . First interview question: Have you ever driven trucks? Second question: Are you a praying man?

However, not sure what to make of China vs. Bolivia. Bolivia's not China. I wonder where it really is... thanks, again.


~ Lizzy

I cry every time it comes on, singing along or not! I can't listen to everything I have on my pod when I'm at work. I need to make a playlist called "Work-safe." But Hans, a coworker, told me today that I always have a little smile playing around my mouth except when I get a little teary eyed. That was nice.

Cat Stevens's "Father & Son" always gets me going too. I'm a real sap.

Believe it or not, the shots taken from inside the tunnels with the light entering are nearly identical to the photos taken from inside my mine.
Since our (Bernd and I) mine is not a highway, we set up camp in a disused drive (cave). The temp. is the same most of the year round. These old drives are sometimes turned into "dugouts", homes, and can be very beautifully fitted out. The walls are often left in a "narural state" (if you can call a mine a natural state?) and holes drilled in them for wine racks, shelves, candle bays and so on.
Below is an example af one up the road (500km) at Coober Pedy.

http://www.annesdugoutbandb.com/

That road in China is something Lizzy. Thanks for the "directions". One could get lost around here!......Bolivia, China Coober Pedy...

I am starting to see what you could mean when you said that you find prayer humiliating. You could be meaning that you will say it with such beauty and care, like it was the most precious gem that you have ever found, that it will be humilating to those killers in high places who say their prayers out loud when they hear from you. Jack L.

You might be onto something Jack.
Manna, I love the fact that you "cry" when you pray seriously. If I was god, I would love you dearly for that.

Matj

Writing those abridged versions of my prayers got me choking up. I cry almost as easily as I laugh.

When I Googled it just now, trying to nail this mountain road down , this is what I found:

In the country of Bolivia is a truly amazing road carved into the side of a cliff. Stremnaya road and Yungas Road is called the road of death. ...

I've been on that same road myself and the likelihood of the Stremnaya road being in Bolivia is slim to none. The road starts in La Paz, goes up to the ...

After being, I think, the first blog to announce (twice) the “Stremnaya Road”, Bolivia actually the Guoliang Tunnel in China mystery solved , I am on to a ...

I'm inclined to go with China. Has more of the majestic drama of China, anyway. Not that Bolivia's not, or can't be... but "China" resonates more.

Will check out your link, Mat. Amazing to consider working in even nearly that environment every day . I'll bet some of the homes you're talking about would sit nicely alongside others in Architectural Digest.

Checked out your link... one of those "If you're going to come this far, don't miss it!" places. It looks very charming... and that book looks like fascinating reading. I still wonder about sleeping amidst the energy of opals. There's a beach in the panhandle area of Florida that's ground crystal and really glistens in the sun. It seems that like bathing in mineral springs and sleeping amongst opals still in the earth, it would be healing to lie covered by the sand. I'm interested to know now how Australian dollars compare to U.S. ones... I'll go the converter for that.

Okay, back to I.15 [?] ~ at some point ? Not that I haven't done my part in the diversions...

Just saw this:

I cry almost as easily as I laugh.

I tend to be that way, too, Manna.


~ Lizzy

lizzytysh wrote:

I've been on that same road myself and the likelihood of the Stremnaya road being in Bolivia is slim to none.

And Slim just left the building.

Manna wrote:All that down on your knees, humbly bumbly stuff, Our Father Who Art In Heaven, Hallowed Be Thy Name. That doesn't work for me because it's so cumbersome.

Manna,

I am a Reform Jew. On Friday nights I sometimes say the Shema. I cannot read Hebrew very well at all, so I read the transliteration. Eg) Sh'ma Yis'ra'eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad. (Hear, Oh Israel, the Lord our G-d, the Lord is One.) The prayer continues on - Deuteronomy 6:4-9.

Then, after lighting two candles, I recite the Lord's Prayer - that's right, the Christian one, and then I read a passage out of my Qu'ran. Tonight I will read, 'Allah is One, the Eternal God. He begot none, nor was He begotten. None is equal to Him' 112:1. I might also read Hindu or Buddhist scripture.

It takes about ten minutes. I don't find it cumbersome; rather, emboldening, even enlightening. Partaking in such different 'culture' always allows me to know, every time, that while the mystics may speak with different voices, they speak of a Oneness that lives in everything.

In peace,
Adam

Partaking in such different 'culture' always allows me to know, every time, that while the mystics may speak with different voices, they speak of a Oneness that lives in everything.

This is beautiful, Adam. I'm especially touched by images of Oneness, having just watched the filming over which Leonard recited The Tibetan Book of the Dead.


~ Lizzy

Thank you Lizzy,

Oneness and togetherness is what it's all about.

Shabbat Shalom to you

Love,
Adam

Yes, I agree... love to you, too, Adam.


Shabbat Shalom to you... as well.



Love,
Lizzy

Adam,
I'm glad you've found something(s) that works for you, and I admire your eclectic prayer ritual. When I try to talk to G-d, I feel like I should be as direct as possible. When I really mean it, I take quite to awhile to work out exactly what I want to say, sometimes I write it down, and I always ask myself, is it worth bothering Him with this? I often do this kind of thinking while walking; I should walk more. If I were G-d, I think it would bore me to endlessly be told how wonderful I am all the time. That's why those rituals feel cumbersome to me. It's not that I don't take time to try to get it as right as I can. And there's the belief thing too. Why bother telling something that it's great and that its name is wonderful if you're not even sure it exists? Maybe some day if/when I cross over to the believers side of the table, I'll feel differently about this.

I'm glad you told me about the way you do this. After I finish the Bible, I think I may move on to other Texts.