A Pause in Lent - 2

This week has been busy, in fact life just seems to be speeding up again, despite my aims for it not to! I have been starting to feel a bit overwhelmed again at everything that is waiting to be done and at the things I want to do. So when I read this poem it spoke to me, this is my prayer for this coming week.

The Day Looks Dull - Stephen Cherry

The day is planned.
Its priorities established.
The diary, like a section through a landscape,
has been built up over time.
Layers laid down.
But that does not make it
interesting,
exciting
or in any way promising.

To be frank, this day looks dull.
The diary looks too full.
I wish there were more gaps,
A little white space for creativity,
or recreation, perhaps.

So my prayer is serious.
I need a lifeline of spirit;
an injection of hope.
I need to see the possible in the
predictable.
I need to see the space in the congestions.
I need to see again the
humanity of the people I will spend
the day with; the spirituality of those
I encounter across the meeting table.
Refurnish me with a sense of
purpose for these all-so-slowly-burning
projects and
quietly unfolding plans.
Replenish me with vision.
Renew me with hope of
transformative action.
Rekindle in me the passion that long since
got me involved in all this.
Rouse my sense of responsibility for
my time, and rid me of the
fantasy that a day in your service
could be dull.

The day is planned Nonetheless let it be
unpredictable.