The theme of a poem of hers I came across just recently fits in with what we were thinking about in the weekly email from last week, namely, how happiness is a choice and that it is hard work. In this poem, simply titled, "A Morning Prayer" Wilcox gives us some ideas of what we might do to create helpful habits that can become part of our lives and lead to happiness:
Let me today do something that shall take
A little sadness from the world's vast store,
And may I be so favored as to make
Of joy's too scanty sum a little more.
Let me not hurt, by any selfish deed
Or thoughtless word, the heart of foe or friend;
Nor would I pass, unseeing, worthy need,
Or sin by silence when I should defend.
However meager be my worldly wealth,
Let me give something that shall aid my kind:
A word of courage, or a thought of health,
Dropped as I pass for troubled hearts to find.
Let me tonight look back across the span
'Twixt dawn and dark, and to my conscience say,
Because of some good act to beast or man,
"The world is better that I lived today."
Perhaps if this became our morning prayer, it would set the tone for the whole day, leading to things productive and good in our own lives and flowing into the lives of others. We could then look back over the course of each day and say with confidence and satisfaction more often than not, "The world is better that I lived today."
Grace and Hope to you this week,
Pastor Duane
