Stay In Control
(a poem, Author unknown)

Lord of this spring morning
Give me the energy
And the wisdom, and the courage,
Needed to stay in control
Of this day.

There are many worse off than me,
With busier lives
And greater problems to tackle.
But that's no consolation to me
Unless I can bring some shape
And meaning
To the next few hours
Of my own life.

Part of the trouble
Is getting bogged down
In things that are not important.
Help me to weed them out
And forget them.

But part of the trouble
Is not realizing
That a lot of boring
And frustrating things
Are important,

Part of the structure
Of anyone's life;
Like clearing things up
And putting right mistakes
Which are not always my own,
Or waiting for something,
Or not felling well enough
To get on top of the day.

Lord of this spring morning
Help me to see that sometimes
Just hanging on
Is an achievement
Of which to be proud.

I shall not do all that I want to do,
Because all that I want to do
Is just not possible today.
But with your help I will try to fill the minutes
With what I can do -
And there is no achievement
In anyone's life
Greater than that.

Lord of this new morning
Give me the courage
To meet the needs of this day,
So that having lived it
I can look back and say:
I could have done no other
Than what I have done.