I carried the white wicker chair from the front bedroom to the front porch. I carried the white mug of coffee from the kitchen to the front porch and placed it beside the wicker chair. I carried the black Moleskine journal from the living room table to the front porch and placed it next to the coffee mug. I carried Emotionally Healthy Spirituality from the living room table to the front porch and, sitting down in the chair, placed it on my lap. I turned to Appendix B.

“Morning Prayer: ‘Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.” (Psalm 37:7)”

It’s a sample of the Daily Office. That’s not a workplace gossip page. If anything, it’s the opposite. The “Daily Office” is a script for a time of daily reflection and prayer.

I use the word “script” because I can’t find a better one. But I mean no disrespect. Some of my best friends are scripts. Movies that have expressed my dreams, shaped my vision. So why not a script to guide my conversation with God, training wheels for my thoughts.

I try to be still. I am captivated by the golden crewcut of the recently-harvested wheat field across the road. I hear call-and-response prayer from the far end of the field. Putting down the book, I walk across the yard to the gravel road. A pair of sandhill cranes, They started earlier than me. They are at the benediction: “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.”

I go back to the wicker chair, the coffee, the journal. I go back to the Office.

“One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.”

Or maybe on this porch.