A member of our Amazing Prayer Circle for Animals, Shannon Murphy, suggested I write an Affirmative Prayer for the elephants, Tembo and Sunda at the Topeka Zoo in Kansas, and for the individuals charged with deciding their fate. (For more information go to
www.elephantfreedom.com) Shannon and my sister Anna and I visited the gate of The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee in May and, in the tradition of affirmative prayer, welcomed Tembo and Sunda to their new home.
Affirmative prayer is somewhat unique in that instead of asking for changes, one affirms that the desired change already exists in truth and that we are open to it being manifested into the material world.
This is my suggested prayer (with input from Will):
Tembo and Sunda have been held against their will at the Topeka Zoo in Kansas for decades, many of those years in chains. The zoo staff and the City Council and City Manager have the power to send them to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, and they have not done so. Nevertheless, this situation has no real power. Only love and truth have permanent, eternal, and real power. The truth is that Tembo and Sunda are created to be free, and the true and loving outcome for Tembo and Sunda already exists on the spiritual plane and is already taking form. Together we give thanks and open our minds and hearts to fully and completely understand and know that the loving outcome is totally and completely real and inevitable. Together we give thanks as we feel and know that the City Council, City Manager, and the zoo staff are right now opening their hearts to the truth of Tembo and Sunda's beautiful lives as beings who are inherently free and deserving of respect, dignity, and kindness. Together we feel our oneness with the universe, with the infinite presence of Love, and with the answered prayer, and we release it with joy to the nurturing care of Spirit.
Please feel free to use this prayer pattern for other issues as well. It is especially powerful to include the human beings who may be apparently causing suffering to an animal or many animals. For the truth in Spirit is that they too are beings of love and of light waiting to manifest their true nature.
What a joy it is for me to belong to this circle of prayer with all of you. Thank you from my heart to yours-we are all connected in Divine Love and Truth.