Prayers For Countries Of The World

I was thinking about a conversation I had with the latest group I met, after the yacht club time...oh! and we went by a huge statute of Lenin...and this blond woman went up and held his finger and I swear she was Russian but I don't know for sure.

So we went to a place for mararitas and they asked about God and if I believed and if I had prayed in my past. I said yes, I had been a very big pray-er. I used to pray for an hour everyday at least and prayed for my future husband. My friend said she did too and it was part of her former church's teaching. It wasn't in mine, but I figured, wherever he was, no matter what he was doing, I prayed for blessings and growth and just a lot of things bc I thought I didn't know who he was but someday I would. The guys were surprised. So I laughed and said, "Yeah, I even prayed for all the countries." Then they stopped laughing.

"You prayed for other countries?" I said yes. I used to pray for the U.S. and whoever was in charge, and I prayed for a bunch of countries, individually. I used to take one or two at a time and pray specifically and other times, I prayed for all of them in general. I had a world factbook and I prayed over whatever country came to mind.

In one of my journals I have a prayer list. It lists a bunch of names that take up a whole page and then lists two of many countries I prayed for: Russia and Israel.

But that was just one list. I prayed for all of them. No partiality really.

I went through every one of them. The people at the table just stopped then and then said, "Well, they need prayer" and looked sad or serious. I said, "So, out of all the countries, which one do you think needs the most help right now?" and this one man said, "Afghanistan." I asked why. He said they're caught between a rock and a hard place. Because, mainly, they are fighting to become a country and have militants on one side and then the U.S. pressure on the other side. This photo came to mind, that I saw on a book at the airport. A really beautiful and interesting cov er but I don't remember the title. Something analytic about how 'narcotics' or opium is fueling Afghanistan. But it was this gorgeous photo of a man in a turban, with a missile type of gun, standing in the middle of a field of pink and white poppies.

So we were all quiet and someone had left the table to use the restroom about that time or before, and we resumed our drinking but I wouldn't let this one guy toast to water. He's like "why not?!" and I exclaimed, "It's BAD LUCK!" so I took his water glass and he grabbed his margarita glass and I said he'd been saved and was "back in the circle." Circle? I have no idea why I said that. I just did, then. The circle of life? who knows.

We drank and sank.

Drank and sank. And tanked. Most of them didn't have religious beliefs too much, and I think I was the most "religious" but I am not anything like I used to be. I still believe in God, I told them, but I have some different opinions now.

I should probably pray a little more for others and the countries again. At least it also keeps them all in my mind and brings ideas to me, of things to pray for, for them. For us. For all of us. I don't feel like I have a country so much.

Wenatchee is my fucking Afghanistan.

lol.

I should pray for Wenatchee because it's really got some issues with corruption. Just weird stuff. Lots of places have problems. People too. Me included. But I'm not the crazy person here. I feel like I'm one of a minority of sane individuals in Wenatchee. We're only, like, 25%.

I guess I'll prayer for the man I marry. What if I never marry though? Or what if I marry a real asshole and think later, "Wow. what happened?!"

I always prayed for strength, and strength of character for him.