This past week, I read a slim volume by one of my favorite writers, the ever quirky, often slightly irreverent and inimitable Anne Lamott. She has written books on faith (Traveling Mercies and Plan B, among others) along with some novels. She was an accomplished junior tennis player in her youth and she’s also written about that. But the book I read last week was one of her books on faith. It was a book on prayer called Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers.

The opening words of her book say this: “I do not know much about God and prayer, but I have come to believe, over the last twenty-five years, that there’s something to be said about keeping prayer simple. Help. Thanks. Wow.”

Help. Help me, because I can’t do this on my own. Help them, because they need it, too.

Thanks. Thank you for answered prayers. Thank you for unanswered prayers (I first learned that from Garth Brooks). Thank you for simply being there to listen.

Wow. That (whatever that is – sunrise, symphony, sonnet, something else) is amazing. Just, WOW!

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate her reminder to keep things simple, especially when it comes to a spiritual practice like prayer that I often try to make more complicated than it really needs to be.