"The rug that I use now for prayers was given to me by someone I love. It was originally a gift for me to use for picnics and such with my children, which I have done. It was made in India and is striped with all sorts of bright colors that seem more suited to picnics than to prayer, I guess, and it was never blessed by a priest or anything official at all. . . .

My rug and I have been a lot of places together. I still have sand in it from this year's trip to the beach. It still doubles as a picnic rug; the people with whom I picnic will not let me retire it. It is somehow all right to me to break bread with the ones I love the most on the rug where I listen for the voice of the One Who loves me best."