Friday, December 18, 2009

A Morning Prayer

Let me today do something that will 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."

--Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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