Daily Grace

When I was young we lived in Florida.  Every so often we would visit my grandmother who lived in St. Pete, and sometimes, while we were there, we would go to a wonderful used book store called Haslam's.  This is where I got my first introduction to Ideals magazine.  If you're not familiar with this magazine, it was an inspirational assortment of poetry, stories, pictures, and so on.  It began in the '40s and its heyday was the 50's and 60's, and it has all the wonderful, wide eyed optomisim and idealism of that era.  In those days, patriotism and pride were as normal as breathing; we lived in America!  The best place on earth! 

At that visit, I got a Christmas Ideals.  It appealed to me because it was published in the year of my birth, 1960.  Ever since then, this magazine is what I read when I want to invoke Christmas spirit.  I sit by the light of the tree, and reread old, familiar, and beloved poems, and my world is good.  It is "daily grace".  To me, daily grace is finding joy in the simple, the spiritual, the special things that are provided for us each day by a loving Father.  It is, as they say in 12 step groups, "an attitude of gratitude".  Join me, won't you, in a journey towards Daily Grace?

May I, With Each Passing Day
by Dorothy Lousie Thomas
from Ideals Christmas, 1960

I thank Thee first for all the gifts
The old year brought to me -
The dancing spring, a yellow rose
A few days by the sea:

Glad gypsy hours in autumn woods,
And restful nights of snow,
And many, many stirring bouts
With clean, blue winds that blow!

I would keep my New Year free
From carelessness and folly,
From little words that prick and sting,
From sinful melancholy;

Free from idle discontent
Which turns the brightest day
Into a stretch of sullen hours
Beneaath a sky of gray.

Let me keep it clean as grass
Twinkling after rain;
Happy as the bird that cleaves
A morning sky in twain.

I would learn the tolerance
Of the kindly sun
That shines alike on rich and poor,
And heartens everyone.

Give to me the trustfulness
Of the roadside flower,
That neither fears the darkening sky
Nor yet the sudden shower.

Strengthen me to do my work
With joy and hardihood,
And may I, with each passing day,
Know that life is good!

Life IS good.  Never lose sight of that.