The Spirit is suffering, striving, creating,
Blessings, guidance and fierce and tender love
for those who wake while others sleep:
on night shifts in factories…
watching over buildings…
traveling through the city…
cleaning offices…
stocking supermarket shelves;;;
in ambulances, police cars, fire engines…
observing and researching…
alert of power stations and waterworks…
at telephone exchanges…
at parties and night clubs…
driving taxis, buses, coaches, trains…
flying over the city in planes…
speeding by the city on motorways…
thieving and attacking in the dark…
searching out the secrets of others…
hustling and walking the streets…
huddling in doorways…
listening to those in despair…
crying out in loneliness…
suddenly taken ill…
trying to sleep but cannot…
restless and awake in hospital…
coping with crises…
watching and caring…
awake with young children…
calming the confused…
dying at home, in hospice or hospital…
keeping vigil with them...
… and those on the other side of the world for whom it is day.

(c. Jim Cotter)