| Thanks | xiii |
| Introduction | xv |
Chapter 1 | Finding Myself | 1 |
| The Way of the Three Steps: A Native American Way to Begin the Day | |
| The Truth About Myself | |
| How Could I Reject Who I Am? | |
| Lord of Healing | |
| The Monk Stood Beside a Wheelbarrow | |
| Listen | |
| Gestalt at Sixty | |
| Wild longing in my eyes | |
| Prayer | |
| Prelude to The Dance | |
| Grace for My Twenty-Fifth Year | |
| Handicaps | |
| The Well | |
| Order of Melchizedek | |
| Bonsai | |
| I Was Obsessed | |
| Our deepest fear | |
| Lord, not you | |
| Blessed Are You | |
| Be Who You Are | |
| It is by seeking | |
| O Lord, One tiny bit of water | |
Chapter 2 | The Mother Line | 19 |
| Pastoral | |
| The Boston School of Cooking Cookbook | |
| I Have So Much I Can Teach Her | |
| The Meaning of Bones | |
| The Tablecloth | |
| Dying at 31 | |
| Source | |
| Oh, God, thank you for the child I carry | |
| To Jacqueline, Age 2, in Her Great-Grandmother's House | |
| Cost of Living | |
| Prayer for Easy Labor | |
| Consecration | |
| 35/10 Sharon Olds to dance at your daughter's wedding | |
| Gift from My Mother | |
| Your Clothes | |
| To Elvira, My Maternal Grandmother | |
| The Turning Point | |
| What Came to Me | |
| The Power in My Mother's Arms | |
| Chains of Fire | |
| Mother of Mothers | |
Chapter 3 | Gathering Our Inner Strengths | 45 |
| Letting Go | |
| A Cedary Fragrance | |
| Self-Giving | |
| Three times each day | |
| From Self-Consciousness to Happiness | |
| Learning to Grow | |
| May you be drenched with the longing for peace | |
| The Last Story | |
| As I light these Sabbath candles | |
| In Pain | |
| Buddhist Vow | |
| Moments of Real Grace | |
| Life in Ravensbruck | |
| Women Who Light Lives | |
| Purnima | |
| We see you | |
| How can you go on sleeping | |
| Breakdown | |
| I Taught Myself to Live Simply | |
| God Alone Suffices | |
| May the Blessing of Rain Be on You | |
Chapter 4 | Finding Heaven in Mother Earth | 61 |
| A vein of sapphires | |
| Sow in me your living breath | |
| His Heart Shone Right Out of His Eyes | |
| Play in this universe | |
| The Seven Directions | |
| The little cares | |
| Earth Teach Me | |
| The Holy may speak to you | |
| The Sapphire | |
| How Should I Fear to Die? | |
| The Stars | |
| The mountain | |
| The Sacred Berry | |
| This Island, This Season | |
| I know I am made from this earth | |
| Spiritual Life | |
| I think everything and everyone slept that afternoon | |
| How shall I begin my song | |
| Earth is crammed with heaven | |
| The Prayer of the Cat | |
| My Lord, Lord of the mountain grove Andal and how could anyone believe | |
Chapter 5 | For All Our Needs | 75 |
| Ti Prego M.P.A. Sheaffer | |
| God our Mother, Living Water | |
| A Prayer for Spiritual Teachers | |
| Brigid's Feast | |
| Give Me Someone | |
| Different Ways to Pray | |
| May I be free from danger | |
| Open our eyes to see our own part | |
| Help in Old Age from the Mother | |
| Make us ready, Lord | |
| Prayer for Village Earth | |
| Prayer for Beauty | |
| Prayer for a Child While Listening to Rachmaninoff | |
| Prayer for Wellness | |
| Metta Prayer | |
Chapter 6 | At Work | 91 |
| A Zen Prayer for Preparing a Meal: How to Stuff a Pepper | |
| Kalighat | |
| You Can Also Pray While You Work | |
| A Pediatrician's Prayer for Perfection | |
| What Must I Do? | |
| Litany of Sorrow for Denying Women Authority | |
| Litany of Blessing for a Woman Taking Authority | |
| I saw God in an instant of time | |
| My Poems | |
| Prayer Before Work | |
| Lord of all the world | |
| Cleaning Rice | |
| Too Much to Do | |
| Radiating Pain | |
| May there always be work | |
| Doing the Best We Can | |
| The Great Work | |
| Go Forward Securely | |
Chapter 7 | Grateful for Everything | 107 |
| Magnificat | |
| Unexpected Blessings | |
| To Sing Is to Praise | |
| Faithfulness | |
| For the Darkness | |
| To Our First Grandmother | |
| Gratitude | |
| Celtic Thanksgiving | |
| All you clear and shimmering waters | |
| Thank you, my dear | |
| Theology | |
| Thank You | |
| I Arise Today | |
| The Flowers | |
| Praise to You Spirit of Fire! | |
| Give Thanks for Everything | |
Chapter 8 | Out of Darkness | 123 |
| Mother Wisdom Speaks | |
| Why Do You Hide Yourself? | |
| Dear God, it is so hard | |
| Passing the Refugee Camp | |
| For Victims of War and Refugees | |
| Lament for September 11, 2001 | |
| The Next Day: 9/12/01 | |
| For the 500th Dead Palestinian: Ibtisam Bozieh | |
| In the Cemetery of Your City: Israel, March 6, 2002 | |
| What Is Happening | |
| Prayer from Auschwitz | |
| Bodhi | |
| Not Without Longing | |
| In the morning | |
| I saw you in the doorway Miriam | |
| From moment to moment | |
| May the angel of God make smooth the road | |
| Psalms of a Laywoman | |
| There is a Brokenness | |
Chapter 9 | Our Spiritual and Mystical Experience | 143 |
| Preparing to Greet the Goddess | |
| Fire in Water | |
| As a silkworm weaves | |
| You | |
| The desert waits | |
| Enter and penetrate | |
| The Sacredness of Time | |
| Speak and Write What You See and Hear! | |
| Dangerous Prayers | |
| Clea--La Chanson de Ma Mie' | |
| The silence is all there is | |
| Oh God, whose true nature I cannot know | |
| With Your Light | |
| When We Stumble and Find It | |
| Mahakranti: The Endtime | |
| Invocation to the Light, December 2001 | |
| I come in the little things | |
| God Everywhere | |
| God is | |
| Beautiful One | |
| A Way In | |
| A Thousand Ways | |
Chapter 10 | Love | 165 |
| And you held me | |
| Black and White Blessing | |
| Balada | |
| I am watching all the roads | |
| Between Words | |
| Do you ever wonder | |
| And so it came | |
| A long time I have lived with you | |
| First Passion | |
| One must go down | |
| To Aphrodite | |
| Who Will Teach Me Now? | |
| The Soul in Love | |
| My Book Was Begun in Love | |
| You Have Come, My Beloved | |
| No Words At All, Just Love | |
| Mira Speaks to Her Lord | |
| A Dying Grandfather's Prayer | |
| To Be an Island in the Sea | |
| In this still moment, Lord | |
| Cold | |
| I Am My Beloved's | |
| All She Needed That Day | |
| To what shall I liken you, Lord? | |
| Index of Authors and Sources | 185 |
| Index of Titles or First Lines | 189 |
| Permissions and Acknowledgments | 193 |
| About the Editor | 199 |