Creating a Sacred Space

We should start by understanding
that this is impossible.
We cannot create a sacred space
because all spaces are already sacred.
In their being they reflect their making
and their maker.
So now we understand our goal
is different, what should we say?

Living our sacred space.
We choose to see that everything around us
is a gift. Every person we meet
is a gift, is a hammer to knock off
the harsh corners,
the uneven contours,
to shape us to our mission.
There is no such thing as an intrusion,
as an obstruction. Every person
is a lesson, is a challenge,
is present to strengthen our ability to love,
to transform us from potential to kinetic.
Until we see this, we miss some of the sacred
brought to us each day.
In our hurry to accomplish we push
aside possibility to pursue our own ephemeral agenda.

Did cutting that person off in traffic really save that much time?
Did letting the door slam behind us in the face of another
really get us to where we were going faster?
Can you even remember where you were going?
What you were doing?
Every time we choose perceived time over real people,
We make a choice not to live in a sacred space.

We live in our sacred space not by praying,
not by rehearsing formulae,
though these can help tend the garden
and make it grow.
Rather, we live our sacred space by being
Prayer.
Rather than words that can sometimes slow
and block us, we live in the moment given to us,
responding to what is right before us,
focused and clear
in the person or task be it work or pleasure--
indeed in our focus,
there are no divisions,
work restores us in the same way
as a walk in the park,
in the same way as an hour at church or temple,
in the same way as our play,
because work and play
are all the same, our moment
our gift for that space of time.

This is how you become Prayer:
accept the gift before you
and do not long for another's gift--
instead rejoice in the gift that is yours
and yours alone.
No one can open your gift
nor can you open another's.
In longing for another's
you reject your own.
You cannot live another's sacred space.
You cannot walk another's sacred path.
And crying to do so will
rob you of your own sacred space.

Do not rob your own house,
do not close off your sacred space
learn instead to accept moment by moment
the gift that is that moment.
Live your sacred space,
be the prayer you were uttered to be
and transform the lives around you.