Over the course of the next few days, whilst Little S was in hospital, I visited the hospital chapel on a daily basis and prayed for Little S to be safe and that she should have a 'refuah shelayma' (be completely healed).
The chapel was full of Christian symbols (but no crosses), but it provided a good space for prayer and contemplation.
I find in reading the hebrew prayers of the Jewish siddur that it helps to find 'hooks' into the text that relate to my particular situation - this adds to the feeling of being connected to a community whilst praying (as the same prayers are being said by Jews all over the world) by making the prayers feel more individual.
In hospital, whilst reading the shema, I found myself comforted that I found six instances of the word 'lev' (heart) - two in the first paragraph, three in the second and one in the third. They were mostly not related to the physical organ of the heart but it still helped make the prayer more about Little S and her fight to be healed.
Then in the Amidah I found that there is a prayer 'mevorech hashanim' which is normally translated as a blessing for the year ahead - already pertinent to Little S and her recovery - but one could make a translation of "blessed is god who blesses the Shanis" and suddenly it could not be more personal.
Somehow these things helped.
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