A prayer for my parents

Master of the World, I am praying for my parents. They gave me life, and I know they gave what they could, even when it was not always what I needed.

Watch over their health. I see how the years pass over them, how things that were simple become hard, and I fear the day when they will need me more than I can give. Give them strength, clarity and good days.

Let me honor them truly. Not only with a dutiful visit, but with the patience to hear the same story for the tenth time, with a phone call for no reason, with respect even when we disagree.

And if there is old anger in me about things that happened at home, help me heal it. I do not want to pretend it did not happen, but neither do I want the past to rob us of the time we still have together.

And if the time has come when the roles are reversed, and I am the one who worries, drives and arranges, let me do it with dignity, without their feeling they are a burden, and without my losing myself inside the caring.

Let me thank them while there is still time, and tell them what matters, as long as it is possible.

And let me receive from them what they still have to give: a story, advice, a blessing. And let us end every visit in peace, so that if a day comes when I can no longer hear their voice, I will remember these days with love and not with regret.