You can create your own place of prayer!
Design your own Place of Prayer! How to create a Place of Prayer: Here is an outline for you:
Holy Ground: Place of Prayer: You can do it!
WHERE? Any Outdoor Area such as a lawn or park, flower garden, woods or meadow near your Home, Church, Community, or a Cemetery
PURPOSE: To integrate the world of Nature and Spiritual Health
How to create a Place of Prayer:
- Choose a Place: Is there a beautiful spot that draws you to it? You like to go there. It feels peaceful.
- Access: Is it easy/convenient to get to in all seasons?
- Visibility: How will others know it is there? Can they see it? Can people see it from the road? Is it easy to locate? If not, what signage would be needed? If people will drive there, where will they park safely?
- Mark out a path from the parking area to your proposed location. Choose the ground cover for that path: Sand, gravel, and loam/dirt will eventually wash away or become mud. Flat stones and bricks are more durable. First look for natural material in the area (re-use, re-purpose, re-cycle, restore), then go to a store that sells ground cover, to get ideas. Use native material if feasible.
- Where will the entrance to your Place of Prayer be located? It should be located at the end of the path that comes from the parking area.
- Choose a shape for your Place of Prayer: Circle? Rectangle? Square? Make a diagram on paper. It is easier to plan and erase on paper than to change things that won’t work. (Listen to the voice of experience!) Using a stick to draw in the dirt is a good idea too.
- Make a border to define the edges. Use stones or bricks, or string/rope that can be replaced later. The boundary needs to be clear.
- Create paths inside your Place of Prayer so that every section can be reached (either inside or outside the boundary. You may need to water, weed, or fertilize – how will you walk without stepping on plants? What materials will define the paths inside the PoP ? Gravel? Wood chips?
- Consider the 3 Ss for plant life: Sun, Soil, Seasons. What about weather? Rain, snow, ice. The weather and climate will determine what can be sustained in your area. Will your PoP survive the winter, drought, high winds, flooding, summer heat? Ask a native gardener to give advice. What have they noticed over time about your chosen area?
- What will you put inside the shape? Something for sitting – a bench or chair or stump, a glider or swing? A flat rock for sitting on? Plan a path from the entrance to the place to sit.
- Choose a name for your Place of Prayer. What title would make people feel welcomed, curious, or excited? What is your purpose in having a Place of Prayer? Make signs.
- Choose material for the ground in the plant sections. A rotor-tiller is nice for digging up the garden, but you can use a shovel or spade. If the ground is not plant-worthy, consider a Container Garden with plants in pots.
- Plan flower beds, and flowers around the edge. Draw them in your diagram.
- Choose plants that grow in the native soil whenever possible. Use fertilizer if it needs to be enriched. You can buy soil and mix it in.
- The sun shines in different places throughout the day and year. Talk with a native about where the sun shines in the winter, summer, fall, and spring. Coordinate the plant with the amount of sun it will need. There are shade plants and semi-shade plants, as well as “full sun”.
- Consider furnishings like a bird bath, table for writing, a kneeler, or decorative objects. Don’t crowd it – the emphasis is on Nature.
- Perennials make the brightest splash of color, but most flower for the shortest time. However, they may keep coming back up year after year. Annuals may flower all season and die at the first frost, but some annuals drop their seeds on the ground to grow the next year. Other plants do not flower much, but their leaves are beautiful. Choosing plants can be complicated, but just buy the cheapest ones and see what happens. That can be your favorite task for your Place of Prayer. There are many on-line gardening groups where you can ask a question and get a hundred answers! Be sure to know your Zone for growing season (which has changed) so your proposed plants fit your climate.
- What kinds of care will each plant need? Regular watering? Weeding? Fertilizing? Set up a schedule for feeling the ground: If its wet, the plant may not need to be watered. If it is dry, it probably needs water, but not a flood. Over-watering and forgetting to water are the two mistakes of gardening. You may wish to try using rainwater or pond water instead of water from the faucet. There is some evidence to support natural water as opposed to well/ground water or city water. Do not water in full sun. If it is an emergency –the plant is wilting — water the roots only, not the leaves. The best times to water are in the evening at sunset, OR in the morning at sunrise.
- Consider starting a compost area for dry leaves and grass. You will be dead-heading (pulling off dead leaves and flowers) all summer. Once they have de-composed, they can be spread around to protect the plants in the Winter, and even to keep out the weeds in the summer (if you can live with the messy looks!)
- Include a birdhouse to attract birds, plants that attract bees, milkweed that attracts monarch butterflies, a hummingbird feeder, or any plant-based articles that attract harmless and endangered species indigenous to the area.
- Laminate a copy of your contact information, the history, description, and guidelines, to leave at the site. You can put it in a mailbox or laminate it.
- Invite young people in Scouts and Youth Group to care for the Place of Prayer: water, weed, plant…
- Now you are wondering, “What do people do at a Place of Prayer?”
What could I (and others) do at the Place of Prayer?
Hear are some possibilities:
Sit in silence. (Silence is Golden)
Listen to the sounds around you.
Listen to your heart and talk to God, silently, aloud, or in song (make up your own song or choose a favorite)
Bring an instrument: recorder, guitar … and play a tune you know or use “free verse”
Read a book, possibly the Bible, a psalm, or a prayer book, any book about spirituality or prayer (some Places of Prayer have a mailbox that is secure from the weather, for books to be read at that site).
Use art supplies to draw a prayer to communicate with God. After all, God is the Greatest Artist of all time, and will enjoy your attempts!
Prayer Walk: Hold a small cross in your hand as you walk and talk with God. Exercise while you pray.
Dance before the Lord! Show joy in God’s Great Cathedral of the Outdoors!
Bring your family or a friend and enjoy God’s presence together.
CONVERSATION CIRCLE
Would you like to join others who have designed or are designing a Place of Prayer? Meetings on zoom are planned, notification on Facebook. It will give the Day: Time (Eastern) and Zoom or In Person Address: Send your email address to placeofprayerbedfordnh@gmail.com and you will be reminded of the meeting. You may email questions and updates too.
There will be in-person Conversation Circles for those in the area of 599 New Boston Rd. Bedford/New Boston/Goffstown/Amherst/Manchester NH USA.