I’ve been praying more lately. Lots of cries for help. Lots of beggy pleas. Not totally sure why.

Maybe it’s the 3 babies. Living in Bahrain. Current geopolitical climate. Book writing. Trying to keep breathing. Trying to keep my mental health. Realizing, day after day, that today is not quite the day that my life will resemble the Anthropologie catalog.

Lauren Winner quotes the poet Carrie Fountain in Still: “Prayer was the last skill I learned. I practiced rigorously. Just as I was getting good, I lost it. As soon as it was gone, I understood it was not a skill at all.”

Unintentionally, I think we look at most things in life as something to be “practiced rigorously” and then conquered. Like tennis. Or chess. Or baking. And somehow, prayer gets lumped in with that must-master mentality.

And then we see—we learn through our desperation—that prayer is much more about being human than being holy.

What is your prayer today?

Mine is this (a borrowed line from the beautiful song by Nichole Nordeman): Oh great God, be small enough to hear me now.