You will appreciate this (I think)….. a month or so ago I created a little space in the centre of our dining table for a basket full of blessings and a tray to hold the basket and any nature treasures the kids pick up while outside. At mealtimes I figured we’ll pull a prayer out of the basket. We painted watercolor backgrounds on the papers. I searched through one of my world and seasonal cookbooks for blessings and prayers from other lands. And wrote out the ones I liked. New ones mixed with some old. Well some of the prayers referred to Father Sun and Mother Earth. Or the Great Spirit. So my girls were LOVING these alternative (to Dear God) prayers and after a week or so of these kinda of prayers my husband says, “What’s with all these prayers that don’t have God in them?”

I was more than a little hurt. He’s more conservative than I and finds some of ‘this stuff’ to be too hocus pocusy for him. He tolerates it. But not always well. Although I feel kind of hurt sometimes, I come from a family where my mom is much more conservative than my dad. They were always very respectful and open about their differences of opinion. And I really think my brother and I benefited from being able to hold both views. I like to think that it’s given us the capacity to bridge ideas and ways of thinking. Looking for the similarities instead of the differences.

Anyway, the Godless prayers in our basket have become something we laugh and joke about and when one is chosen, the girls try to find the God part, making Dad feel a little better.