One

Author Richard Bach once wrote a book called One. According to the book, he and his wife Leslie Parrish had a kind of surreal experience. Bach is a pilot and their plane was taken over by a spiritual entity who was there to teach them some important truths. Accordingly in his communication with them, he showed them a flow of lifelines that represented all activity by everyone everywhere. When the Bachs asked him how many there were, the surprising answer was, "One, Richard. There is one."

This may sound odd to those who are Christians, but that is actually one of the basic themes of Christianity too. We sing:

We are one in the Spirit,
We are one in the Lord,
And we pray that all unity
May one day be restored.

Isn't this the same thing? Is it not acknowledging that we have a unity with one another and with God? It even echoes John Donne, "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were..."

So, keeping that in mind, whenever I pray, while I start with myself and my family and friends, I always expand outward to include everyone everywhere. Whoever you are, I pray for you, my very extended family.