This thing called prayer

Prayer works "the earth of the heart." In order to work the soil, one must break up the hardened dirt clods, water the ground, free it from weeds and then plant a crop. Prayer is the way to "loosen up" the heart. During the natural course of our lives the "earth of our hearts" becomes parched, weed-infested and hardened. Unless we take care to break it up; to run our fingers again through the rich soil that we know is there, our lives can become desert dry. A mother had been teaching her three-y