prayer

The prayer

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A father was tucking his 3 years old daughter into bed, told her a story, and listened to her prayers which ended by saying, “God bless mommy, God bless daddy, God bless grandma and goodbye grandpa.”

The father asked, “why did you say goodbye grandpa?”

The little girl replied, “I don’t know daddy. It just seemed like the thing to do.” The next day, the grandpa died. The father thought that it was just a coincidence.

A few months later, while the father was tucking his daughter to bed, and while listening to her nightly prayers, he heard her pray, “God bless mommy, God bless daddy and goodbye grandma.” The next day the grandmother died.

“Holy crap”, thought the father. “my daughter is in contact with the other side.”

Several weeks later when the girl was going to bed, he heard her prayer, “God bless mommy and goodbye daddy.”

He practically went into shock. He couldn’t sleep all night. He got up at the break of dawn to go to his office. He was nervous as a cat all day, had lunch and watched the clock. He figured if he could get by until midnight he would be okay. He felt safe in the office, so instead of going home at the end of the day, he stayed there drinking coffee, looking at his watch and jumping at every sound. Finally midnight arrived. He breathed a sigh of relief and went home.

When he got home, his wife said, “I’ve never seen you work so late. What’s the matter?”

He said, “I don’t want to talk about it. I just had the worst day of my life.”

She said, “You think you had a bad day? You’ll never believe what happened to me. This morning the mailman dropped dead on our porch.”

Solace

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Where do you go when you need a piece of heaven?

I remember Dr Rosario Carretero, our residency training officer during my training days in pediatrics. Residency training during my time was very different from what you have today. (And that’s a different topic altogether as well). Stressful was an understatement to describe it.

Each day was more difficult to bear. Teaching the younger ones, seeing both charity and private patients, supervising the younger residents, doing our own research papers and yes, doing administrative work for the department. They were taking a toll on patience and perseverance.

One day Dra Carretero took me to a side and talked to me. Where is the burden coming from? Responsibilities are part of life. And anger had no place in a heart that should be filled with gratitude even during the most trying times.

So we sat together at the CD chapel and she told me to learn to unburden myself to someone who would listen. God.

It didn’t take long that my whole chief residency days became a daily conversation with God. I learned that sharing in prayer made the load lighter to carry. And throw the worries to the wind.

It’s been gazillion years since that fateful day where when I found healing and forgiveness and love.

And I share my solace with everyone who’s going through some trying times. In spite of my hectic and frenetic schedules, there’s a place where my solitude finds me in a beautiful place of peace.

A place where I come to terms with God. Where being grateful for all the blessings, small or big, easy or difficult, where time is at a standstill and I can unburden my world…where prayers and offerings is the solace of my soul.