A Benediction from Cole Arthur Riley and All of Life Is the Writing Life

The benediction Cole Arthur Riley includes in the “Calling” chapter of Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human helps me know that All of Life Is the Writing Life as I engage with everything I encounter.

Also, one pattern I’ve noticed in my spiritual direction work is how the people I meet with are moving towards healing and freedom, even if they can’t discern it in the moment.

While we are being formed to be people who are more healed and liberated than we are today, we are being formed to do the writing we will do when we are more healed and liberated than we are today.

Now listen to the sounds that stir within, listen to the cries for help that ring around you, and follow a path of healing and liberation for you and all you encounter. Take peace in the sound of your own voice as you choose the life that honors your truest self. May it be so.

And this one breath prayer from that same chapter moves me toward believing God is always present and my soul is always in communion with the eternal:

INHALE: I listen for the divine.

EXHALE: My soul whispers back.

Amen.