On Lifting the Wrist: Prayer

Every once in a while something clicks in while I’m trying to learn. With the piano, I’ve lately discovered an elementary concept: I have to lift my hand off the keyboard at certain moments or get entangled in my own fingers. I’ll have to practice this, as I’ve been hugging the keyboard tight.

            In all arts, there comes a time when you have to stop clinging. Clinging, clutching, gripping, hanging on for dear life. In drawing, you'll  find the draft doesn’t have to resemble the finished image in any fine respect. In music, less clinging and more singing. You can only get there from here.

            Is the same possibly true of prayer? Can I praise and bless with a light touch? God hears so many petitions. Do petitions grip and clutch? Of course, from time to time things reach a dire stage where there’s nothing to do but appeal to God.

            Praise and blessing are maybe like breathing. Breathe in: praise. Breathe out: bless. Always bless an attacker. Ask the martial artists. Is the pause between one breath and another like lifting the wrist, taking your hand off it for a second, letting it go?