Happy Mother’s Day! Tomorrow is Mother’s Day. If your mother is still living, count your blessings this Mother’s Day.
My mother collected little thoughts and sayings. She had countless little pieces of paper, some cut out of a church bulletin, others where she had written or copied something she had heard or read. She put these scraps of paper everywhere–in the textbooks from which she taught, in her Bible, in the books of poetry and inspiration that she collected. Today I share a poem that I heard her recite on several different occasions, one that she had written out in her own hand. Her version is slightly edited from Walter Lewis Smith’s “Fulfillment.”
I have planted a garden, so I know what faith is,
I have seen birch trees swaying in the breeze, so I know what grace is,
I have listened to birds caroling, so I know what music is.
I have seen a morning without clouds, after a shower, so I know what beauty is.
I have read a book beside a wood fire, so I know what contentment is.
I have seen the miracle of the sunset, so I know what grandeur is,
And because I have perceived all these things, I know what wealth is.