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Index: Pulling the Pieces into Prayer
* Daily Grace and Sabbath Prayer
* Solitary Shabbat Prayer 
Solitary Shabbat Prayer
Posted September 2007
Written in Betsy’s journal
Friday evening September 15, 2006
I’m diverted from Shabbat by myriad big and little worries. I need a personal Shabbat prayer for when I am home alone on Friday nights. I write this prayer and saying it helps me get centered and get into the Shabbat spirit.
Solitary Shabbat Prayer
At the end of the week
I come to this table
Tonight by myself and yet with you, God.
To light candles and to bring peace into my home, shalom ba’baiyit.
I taste the wine, ha’yayin,
And I thank you dear God for my tongue able to taste
And for my throat open to swallow
And for the zip and the surprise of the wine taste this week.
I nibble the bread, ha’lechem,
Too fast and too unheeding.
Yet it sustains me whether I eat it quickly or savor every bite.
And I slow down and I give thanks
For two days of freedom to do as I choose.
You gave us the day of Shabbat.
But some of us, myself included, have the fortune of two days without
work.
So finally I thank you
For my job and the free time it affords me.
And with gratitude, I thank you
For all that I have.
And I hope you will guide me to give back in
gratitude
For all these gifts that make up my life.
Osu, Amen.
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Osu is a Japanese word that is pronounced "oose" with an "oo" sound as in the word "moose." I learned the word osu when I took Karate. Our teachers taught us that it means: I’m present, I’m here, I understand, I’m involved with the moment.
© copyright 2006, 2007 by Betsy Fuchs