Appropriate Beginnings

I started to commit to praying on Sunday. I feel that I know how to pray and can pray, yet feel there is so much to learn, so much depth that I am missing. Over the years, though, I have realized the loss of my focus for praying for individuals. So, that's what I concentrated on. And, as you can imagine, the problems I ran into were so stereotypical. I began praying intently and then found myself, five minutes later, thinking about a subject so far off from where the prayer began that I realized my focus was shot. Later that day I tried again, and drifted off to sleep. Finally, I set aside some time in the evening and was interrupted. Here is the point of tension, the ability to not give up when it is difficult, yet not push through so that the task can be checked as finished; the difficulty in engaging my mind without and jettisoning my heart, and vice-versa. An appropriate beginning.