A Morning Prayer

Let me today do something that will take

A little sadness form 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 by my wordly 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