Breath prayers for the rest of us…

…the rest of us…
…who have waited… and waited… far longer than we wanted or was comfortable.
…who have mourned and are still mourning… and may never stop mourning because letting go of the grief feels like a betrayal of all we’ve lost.
…who are struggling… with depression, anxiety, chronic pain and terminal illness… or maybe… just life.
…who feel unseen… unheard… misunderstood… forgotten… by others… by God.
…who have prayed all the prayers and have simply run out of prayers… whose prayers have been reduced to silence.

…if you feel lost, invisible or engulfed by pain… these prayers are for you.

The people who walked in darkness
 have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
 on them has light shone.
Isaiah 9:2 ESV

As we journey through Advent, we are reminded that it is typically described as a season of waiting. Even more so, as a season of waiting in darkness. Last week we lit a candle of Hope. This week we light another candle… two candles now pushing back the darkness. A candle of Peace.

But where is peace in the darkness?

Peace is really hard to come by in the midst of dark seasons in our journey. Especially when we strive against the disorienting uncertainty of darkness. In my darkest places, striving might’ve been an understatement. I was fighting back… swinging punches into the darkness as if my life depended on it… but never hitting a thing. At the end of that fighting… that wrestling… came pure exhaustion… but then, surprisingly, peace. Settling in like a blanket of snow that comes silently falling through the night. I awakened to the blinding white of winter, shut my eyes, and waited… and, somewhere in the midst of that winter season, found my breath again. It was there… waiting for me all along… waiting for me to stop long enough to find it once more.

Breathe this breath prayer with me:
Inhale: I accept the blanket of my wintering
Exhale: I let go of my striving
Inhale: My wintering peace
Exhale: Settles the war within

May this prayer light a candle of PEACE within.
Godspeed on the journey, my friend,
Jody

(C) 2025 Jody Thomae

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Jody is an author, spiritual director, worship leader and trauma-informed somatic therapist working at the intersections of spirituality, embodiment, healing, beauty and worship. You can find her books on Amazon and her offerings in living a more fully embodied, whole hearted life at www.fullyembodied.com.