by Walter Rauschenbusch
O God, we thank you for this earth, our home;
For the wide sky and the blessed sun,
For the salt sea and the running water,
For the everlasting hills
And the never-resting winds,
For trees and the common grass underfoot.
We thank you for our senses
By which we hear the songs of birds,
And see the splendor of the summer fields,
And taste of the autumn fruits,
And rejoice in the feel of the snow,
And smell the breath of the spring.
Grant us a heart wide open to all this beauty;
And save our souls from being so blind
That we pass unseeing
When even the common thornbush
Is aflame with your glory,
O God our creator,
Who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
What did the mother turkey say to her disobedient children? “If your father could see you now, he’d turn over in his gravy!”
“Who are we to say which of our works will be judged worthy. Just keep putting it out there—remember it’s all practice, and law of averages favors those whose output is, like Picasso’s, prodigious. Don’t stand in the way of progress by splitting a single work’s endless hairs.”
Every day is a clean slate. Once it gets going, though, it can get away from you, and the next thing you know, it’s time for bed, and you didn’t focus on what you planned to. Avoid this by starting every day writing down one thing you’re grateful for. Write down and reflect on what’s good. It’s simple, but it starts off your day on the right foot before you jump back into the daily grind.
Paul Laurence Dunbar
