A Prayer for the Newly Separated

13 July 2012 | Meg Riley

by Meg Riley

It’s confusing:  It’s not that the love went away,
Nor that precious history is gone,
It’s just that a couple,  knit together daily through acts of chosen connection, is now two separate people, torn apart,
Choosing aloneness, or accepting its necessity.

May you remain open-hearted.
May that which is unspeakable to the other remain in your heart for you—your heart’s truth
Not why the separation, not why the grief,
But honoring the love that brought you to this moment,
Honoring the struggle that brought you to consciousness,
Honoring the wisdom which you can now draw from,
Can now root in,
Can now drop up through your body, alone, but still whole.

Meg Riley is senior minister at CLF. She’s been a UU minister for twenty years. As a UU kid in West Virginia, she quickly learned to enjoy being ‘different,’ which has served her well in a ‘different’ life. Riley lives in Minneapolis, where she enjoys walking by lakes, gardening, reading and writing, and in social media, where she enjoys hanging out, keeping up with people, and playing the occasional game of Scrabble. She is the parent of a teenager, and the companion of a number of four legged friends.