I was junior high school age and my family went shopping at Hills Department Store in our hometown. As always, I was taken by the sparkles in the jewelry department and my father approached me and handed me Perls' Gestalt Prayer 1 typed on a small note card. I still have it neatly tucked in a journal. Since then, it has been quite a mental anchor when others presume to order and control my life without God's perfect will.
"I do my thing and you do your thing.
I am not in this world to live up to your expectations,
And you are not in this world to live up to mine.
You are you, and I am I,
and if by chance we find each other, it's beautiful.
If not, it can't be helped."
(Fritz Perls, 1969)
1 Perls, Frederick S. The Gestalt Prayer. Wilmette, Ill: Aquarian Productions, 1969.
