Help, Thanks, Wow, by writer Anne Lamott, takes a fond yet unflinching look at personal spiritual practice and how keeping in regular contact with our Higher Power not only gives us comfort and strength, but can also embolden us to live our best lives. Her theory is that all prayer (however you conceive of the deep spiritual connections you experience) can find a home in one of the following three categories:
- Help: asking for assistance with problems, working on our relationships with others, and requesting fulfillment of our fondest hopes
- Thanks: giving gratitude for all the good, life-affirming things that happen to us, the tender mercies we receive
- Wow: feeling, noticing, and expressing awe toward the amazing world that surrounds, protects, and delights us, if we only have the awareness (eyes, heart, and mind) to truly see it
Writing prompt:
Write your own Help, Thanks, Wow prayers or meditations (or concentrate on just one if you’d rather) specifically for your writing life. Where do you need special assistance right now? What fills you with thankfulness? What about your writing practice absolutely amazes, dazzles, thrills you? There are, of course, no right or wrong answers, only a real writer (you) pausing a moment to truly appreciate her craft and to feel entering into it each day the incredible abundance of life.
1.) Help: Today please help me to …………………………………………….
2.) Thanks: Today I am grateful for …………………………………………..
3.) Wow: Today I am awed by ……………………………………………………
Hint: This practice can be a wonderful way to calm, focus, and center yourself as you sit down to write each day.