GRANT ME YOUR SENSE OF TIMING  By Ted Loder

O God of all seasons and senses,
Grant me your sense of timing
To submit gracefully

And rejoice quietly
In the turn of the seasons.

In this season of short days and long nights,
Of gray and white and cold,
Teach me the lessons of waiting:
Of the snow joining the mystery
Of the hunkered-down seeds
Growing in their sleep
Watched over by gnarled-limbed, grandparent trees
Resting from autumn’s staggering energy;
Of the silent, whirling earth
Circling to race back home to the sun.
O God, grant me your sense of timing.

In this season of short days and long nights,
Of gray and white and cold,
Teach me the lessons of endings:
Children growing, Friends leaving,
Jobs concluding, Stages finishing,
Grieving over, Grudges over,
Blaming over, Excuses over.
O God, grant me your sense of timing.

In this season of short days and long nights,
Of gray and white and cold,
Teach me the lessons of beginnings:
That such waitings and endings
May be a starting place, A planting of seeds
Which bring to birth What is ready to be born -
Something right and just and different,
A new song, A deeper relationship,
A fuller love -In the fullness of your time.
O God, grant me your sense of timing.