Thought for the Day 5/31/2005

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 worth 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