Hi Adorable People!
I hope everyone had a nice weekend. Mine was fun..but bittersweet. It was my last weekend with my fiance Patrick until January. (I’m leaving to do a semester abroad in Ireland). We stayed up late playing a lot of Minecraft, watching movies, and drinking wine from the bottle. It really is good to be in a relationship with your best friend.
On to today’s topic, Prayer! As a Christian, I generally enjoyed praying. Not the kind where you read pre-written prayers in church though, or where they make you stand forever and all you can think about is sitting down. I enjoyed just falling asleep saying my prayers. I never really believed in the power of prayer, it was more of a reflection for me. I never asked god to help me get an A on a test or anything, but I would pray about having patience and remembering to take it slow. And eventually in praying to God, I realized I was just reminding myself and focusing on something important. And that’s what I liked about praying—just a quite time to sort through emotions and think serious things, the ups and downs of life, what I need to work on, what is going well, etc.
So, now as an atheist, I don’t pray. But I do find myself missing that quiet serious time. Reflecting to myself with no sort of direction is harder to make time for and not as rewarding. I do enjoy talking to Patrick about what we are thankful for, and the best and worst part of the day (from the part of me that was a camp counselor…). I also enjoy listening to some comedy before falling asleep, because laughing is important.
I love the rawness of trying to create something like a new routine for reflecting. Sometimes you try something and it just sticks, sometimes ideas just fails. It’s a process and somewhere along the way you learn about yourself by figuring out how you like to reflect, not from the actual reflecting. I feel that atheist “prayer” is ultimately more fulfilling because it’s about me taking responsibility of my decisions, happiness, and life instead of making that out of my control.
How do you reflect? I’d love to hear about it!
Have an adorable day,
M.C.
Coffee and tea are excellent beverages to drink while reflecting.
The Adorable Atheist 