{"id":3273,"date":"2025-11-12T09:00:02","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T14:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/?p=3273"},"modified":"2025-11-11T16:49:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T21:49:13","slug":"simply-say-a-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/2025\/11\/12\/simply-say-a-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"simply say a prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">By Jackie Ayala, Staff Writer<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"1200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_2069-800x1200.jpeg\" alt=\"Christ Statue\" class=\"wp-image-3289\" style=\"width:471px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_2069-800x1200.jpeg 800w, https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_2069-333x500.jpeg 333w, https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_2069-768x1152.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_2069-1024x1536.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_2069-1365x2048.jpeg 1365w, https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_2069.jpeg 1472w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Christ Statue by the Palais des Papes, Avignon, France | Brennan Gleason \n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s hard to simply say a prayer<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you struggle to breathe,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And struggle to understand the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To get told to simply say a prayer<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gives you nothing when you need more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>You let go of old values,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ideas you grew up with<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a child at mass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Your religion feels like a lie, a hoax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But it stays inside you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>One sin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One small sin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To fix it you&#8217;re told to<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Simply say a prayer for<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God has to forgive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But do you forgive yourself?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Does prayer help you forgive?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The guilt stays inside you rotting,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Waiting until it can consume you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To simply say a prayer<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Does nothing to get rid of the hole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>How many sins can one make<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before you can\u2019t undo it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Where do you turn when<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You have no one?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Simply say a prayer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jackie Ayala, Staff Writer It\u2019s hard to simply say a prayer When you struggle to breathe, And struggle to understand the world. To get told to simply say a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3289,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-3273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-creative"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3273"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3345,"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3273\/revisions\/3345"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3273"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginarygardens.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=3273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}