Awake in beauty - rsi m nfr
Awake in peace - rsi m htp
Awake my soul in beauty and peace
Awake in beauty and peace, Great Ones in the Boat of a Million Years
Awake in beauty and peace, ancestors, guides, spirit friends and elements
Dua!  Iti m htp - Hail and welcome!

This is the beginning of my daily morning devotional, based on an ancient Egyptian prayer. As I light a candle* while offering this prayer, I imagine myself in my wholeness as if my soul is waking to a renewed awareness of its immortality.  I remember the great continuous thread of existence of which I am a part.  I rebirth myself into the present moment, ready to bring the gifts of the past and future into my day.

 (click photo to watch the sun rise at Abu Simbel)

For most of my life my spirituality was somewhat slapdash.  I argued with a friend who told me many years ago, "There is no faith without practice."  I argued that there is no practice without "faith", a word I used in a very general way to indicate any internal feelings I might have about spirituality.  But he was right, and decades later I have come to appreciate my friends who are Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and who are nuns, because they maintain their practice as a habit.  All of us have both good and not-so-good habits, but the good ones keep us focused even through times when we are distracted or depressed or overwhelmed.

Each morning that I make that prayer, I join the parade of countless priests and priestesses who went before me, renewing the beautiful words spoken for thousands of years before the voices went silent in the 4th century CE.  But when we greet them, the old gods do indeed wake in beauty and peace, renewing their relationship with us now.