prayer is like love: a valentines day post??

Today I went for another run/walk in my neighborhood. Like I've said before, I am not a runner nor do I pretend to be. However, when it's 79 degrees outside and not a cloud in the palm tree filled sky, you feel guilty NOT going for a run. It's like being in Rome and not eating pizza. So, I went for a run/walk today around my neighborhood, and when I say "my neighborhood", I really believe it now. It's starting to feel mine.

Our street

I feel that way partly because we are quickly approaching our 2 month anniversary of living here, but also because of the time that I have spent just thinking about my neighborhood. Like I mentioned earlier, in my Urban Studies class, we are investing the quarter doing in-depth research and contemplation about our particular neighborhood, with the purpose of proposing a hypothetical activity, event, or solution to a problem at the end of the course (by the way, mine is going to be a community garden). Our professor is pretty famous here in LA for the work he has done restoring and organizing cities, like giving the famous McArthur Park in downtown LA a complete makeover. He has really encouraged us to take ownership of our neighborhoods and to make a difference about important issues such as homelessness, etc. At the same time, he has worked a really interesting thread into the course, which is using spiritual disciplines to theologically reflect upon our neighborhood.  Who knew that you could turn studying Census data and zoning laws into something theological?

So i've tried to be intentional lately about praying for my neighborhood as I walk through it, but maybe you can relate when I easily get distracted by all the cute little bungalow style houses and oh! look a squirrel! oooh flowers.....and cactus in your yard, who ever woulda thunk of that? oh here comes that crazy flock of parrots again!

....and i forget how I was supposed to  be being "spiritual".

Well my professor challenged us that what if instead of praying while we walk around our neighborhood, could just the act of walking around it be our prayer? Kinda of the whole pray without ceasing deal. Making every thing we do an act of worship, a "spiritual" thing. Taking time to just be silent and listen instead of thinking that prayer means doing a lot of talking. I like that. It kinda sounds like cheating at first, but of course it doesn't mean we shouldn't ever take time to intentionally pray and talk to God.  It's like those times when elvis and i are just sitting beside each other on the couch and don't need to say a word to express everything we feel.

Check out this quote from Carlo Carretto which I found in the book we are reading for that class, Sacred Rhythms:

"Prayer is like love. Words pour at first. Then we are more silent and can communicate in monosyllables. In difficulties a gesture is enough, a word, or nothing at all- love is enough. Thus the time comes when words are superfluous.....The soul converses with God with a single loving glance, although this may often be accompanied by dryness and suffering."