God knows I talk a better prayer life than I actually pray.  I pray at night.  But something is missing.  I was a youth minister for 25 years, much of which was in "God's Country" of the east Texas piney woods.  I have never felt closer to God than when I was running retreats for high school kids, and I would always be the first to awaken (after being the last to go to sleep the night before), and I took a special Catholic prayer book with me and sat on the ground at dawn, with my back to a big pine tree, and I read the prayers.  As I read the prayers, I listened to the wind gently blowing through pines, the sounds of animals scurrying around looking for food, the birds awakening and singing in the new day.  And best of all, I listened to the absolute, total silence as the sun rose for another day.  During those times, I felt a very strong connection with a higher power, my God maybe.  I just knew how insignificant humans are, when seen in the context of creation.  I miss that.  I need to get it back.  The prayer book was called The Liturgy of the Hours, required reading by every Catholic priest and deacon, and many sisters and nuns world-wide.  Each day is divided into six or seven readings at different times of the day.  For a few years, I followed and prayed the liturgy very closely.  Then I just kinda slacked off.  I gave my books to a priest from Africa, who had none.  I miss them.  And I think I need them in order to reclaim a little of that special time and place, even if only for a short time, while lost in prayer.