David's prayer made me think of Thich Nhat Hanh and a story he tells of losing his mother. I'll share that here...

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The day my mother died, I wrote in my journal, "A serious misfortune of my life has arrived." I suffered for more than one year after the passing away of my mother. But one night, in the highlands of Vietnam, I was sleeping in the hut in my hermitage. I dreamed of my mother. I saw myself sitting with her, and we were having a wonderful talk. She looked young and beautiful, her hair flowing down. It was so pleasant to sit there and talk to her as if she had never died. When I woke up it was about two in the morning, and I felt very strongly that I had never lost my mother. The impression that my mother was still with me was very clear. I understood then that the idea of having lost my mother was just an idea. It was obvious in that moment that my mother is always alive in me.

  I opened the door and went outside. The entire hillside was bathed in moonlight. It was a hill covered with tea plants, and my hut was set behind the temple halfway up. Walking slowly in the moonlight through the rows of tea plants, I noticed my mother was still with me. She was the moonlight caressing me as she had done so often, very tender, very sweet...wonderful! Each time my feet touched the earth I knew my mother was there with me. I knew this body was not mine alone but a living continuation of my mother and my father and my grandparents and great grandparents. Of all my ancestors. These feet that I saw as "my" feet were actually our feet. Together my mother and I were leaving footprints in the damp soil.

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In nature you do find the beauty of something larger and yet inclusive of us all. A prayer to a rose would be the same as a prayer to a Christian God. Nature sings to us that we are all connected. Our prayers for Dan and Gene are just an extension of that organic connection. Not to doubt them (our prayers) gives them strength. What you'd like to call that power (faith?) is up to you.

    I do believe that prayer can't be used or thought of as wishes granted by a genie. I think to pray in a useful sense (at least to me) is to pray for Dan and his family and friends to find what they need right now to continue. Strength, wisdom, courage, peace, love...they can all heal. To know that we are there for them, even if just in a small way, can heal. We all have to face this in life. None of us are ever alone.

   Is there a God listening to our prayers? The Dalai Lama is called by some the Wishfulfilling Gem. I think if there is a God, there is more than one path to this God. That's why I think there is so much beauty in so many different religions. This God, like a gem with many facets would reveal itself in different ways to different people.

  Prayer then, would not be like a hopeful letter written to a generous friend, but a doorway to a deeper understanding of ourselves and what is to come. In this we'd find our answers, our God, and we'd travel there together.

   Maybe I'm rambling but that's my take on it.

                                               Reg