Today, I’m leading 18 people in a free, community writing workshop. My kind of church.

None of them knows me. I’ve never met a single one of them. I just hung a shingle out and said, “Come?” And each said, “Yes, I will.” We all need each other, it seems.

I’m silently asking for divine help. Help me. Help me know the way. Help me make a safe place to settle and open. Help me remember to bring all the things I need, all the gifts I want to give.

I said, “I will bring the kettle if you bring a cup.” I will bring tea and honey and napkins and spoons. Maybe a spare cup or two for the ones with too much on their minds.

I will bring paper and pens in case someone runs out of ink or reaches that very last page in the notebook.

I will bring tissues because this can get deep. Deep down where the truth hides, where we tether it to a post so it can’t harm us. Also sniffles. Let’s hear it for ‘thank god someone brought the Kleenex for my runny nose.’

I will bring hand lotion to soothe knuckles and cuticles, leave them softer than when they crawled in.

I will bring mints for moments of tension or sleepiness needing a cool rain. Also, tea-breath.

I will bring a small bowl for each table, handmade pottery glazed in blues and browns, to keep all these treasures together – the town store for anything one might want or need.

For the plastic folding tables, I will bring vintage woolen blankets as tablecloths, each bringing their own hidden stories and memories.

I will bring the poems. I will bring my own words. I will bring my courage as an invitation for their courage.

YOUR TURN

Sunday Service is a recurring community feature and you are invited to join the party!

Regardless of faith, prayer is a beautiful thing. It can be grateful, it can be joyful, it can be a question, it can be a song. This is a place where your writing can be your prayer, an open door for higher wisdom to ‘runneth over.’

Use the post to the right as an invitation to write your own Sunday Service or capture an image that elicits a stirring in your soul. Keep it short, make it washed in your truth. Write it for you, not for us.

But then share it with us. Trust us. Your words are important to us.

Post your writing or a link to your writing/photo in the comments below.

Or, if you share on social media, use the hashtag #sundayservice to allow us to find you, follow you, sing with you.