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