“God, I feel I could wear this day
I feel I could wear the day today
like a scarf
(But not because it’s cold
’cause it’s not)
I feel I could wear the day and
the wind would wrap it around and around me
I feel I could wear the day
I feel I could wear the day today
Like a scarf
and dance it
Yellow with a fringe or two of blue.”
~Neil Paynter

This morning as I sat down for a cup of coffee after a bowl of granola,I began leafing through some of the new prayer books I have recently purchased. I am ever on a quest for words people have used to express their prayer. There is something in reading them that makes me understand my own search for just the right word, just the perfect combination to create the phrase that will breathe through me on its way to touching the Holy. This morning’s search gleaned this gem by Neil Paynter. The truth is I was drawn to these words not because they express my prayer but for the fact that they do not.

I awoke on this day after a couple nights of fitful sleep. Too many stray details taking night flights through my semi-conscious brain. Two nights of deep breathing to bring on sleep that never fully arrives. So this morning I feel somehow lost to the tasks at hand, the list of to-dos this day holds. Right now I simply feel I am waiting for my brain to make a grand entrance into the light of the sun. Ever have this experience?

Some days, some weeks are more complicated than others. Some richer and fuller. The last few days have had me silently asking for a do-over. But of course, we never truly get do-over days. We only are offered the gift of this particular day which begins in mystery no matter what we may have written down as its agenda. What I planned to happen given what is on my calendar for this day and what actually unfolds may be very different. My prayer is that I will have the wisdom to choose what is the greater good of the many options that may arise. And that I will be present to its fruit.

In reading this prayer, I was confronted with a choice. I could choose to muddle through, crossing off the many things that need to be accomplished, and arrive at day’s end with pencil marks on a piece of paper and perhaps a certain feeling of satisfaction. Or I can choose to ‘wear this day’ like a colorful scarf allowing its brilliance to flap in the wind,to keep me warm, to be seen as fringe that falls across my tired but searching eyes.

This is the gift, and the choice, that is offered to us every day. Our work is to intentionally make a decision. Will we wear this day? Or allow it to wear us, even wear us out? At day’s end, as we take stock of all that has flowed through the minutes and hours that have expired, will we find ourselves dancing as a colorful scarf makes a pillow for a good night’s rest?

It is my deepest hope.