'I struggle to imagine a god that I would be willing to pray to, but still I am drawn to prayer for prayer's sake. It is an act that my mind knows, that happens without my intervention. "Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer / utter itself" begins Carol Anne Duffy's most famous poem. "Prayer," which later goes on to show the faithless turning to piano scales and the Shipping Forecast to capture a little of the quality of prayerfulness. Praying is something that I can do, and so I do it. It seems to represent an atavistic impulse on my part, a desire to find life in the world around me, the trees and stones and bodies of water, the birds and mammals that enter my line of sight. Mine is a personal animism, hushed by my conscious brain, nurtured by unconscious.'
Katherine May, Wintering: The power of rest and retreat in difficult times, p.133.
