Prayer is no flight into the extraordinary; it's a descent into true humanity. It's a union of heaven and earth, the sanctifying of the ordinary--the ordinary recovered by God, paradise regained. Prayer, the prayer that follows the impulse of love, that works to forget all else but God, is the reunion of my self, the reintegration of my being. Prayer is not about getting things from God, calling on God to toss me a life vest. Rather, it's the hard journey past all the alluring things that claim me, call me from the path. Prayer is true freedom, which is why prayer is a way of life and not a mere task or duty.