For those of you who have not read previous posts on this site, my husband passed away this summer.  In going through his things, I have found many bits of paper with little sayings that he loved, parts of his life that he wanted to improve on, or things that he wanted to accomplish in life.  Some of them were just scraps of paper. Others were on sticky notes or in notebooks.  One day I came across a postcard.  He collected postcards so that he could send them to our daughters, but he was using this particular one just as another scrap of paper.  It had my name at the top and he had written just the first verse of this most beautiful poem.  After finding the entire poem, I was stunned by its beauty and truth.  I encourage you to read it.  It is just so beautiful.  Poetry like this has mostly passed out of our experience, but I believe that we would be much enriched to let the words of poets from previous eras drench us with their wisdom.  I have been reading it daily since I found it, and it still touches my heart.  I hope that you can find treasure in it. 

All As God Wills

by John Greenleaf Whittier

All as God wills, who wisely heeds
To give or to withhold,
And knoweth more of all my needs
Than all my prayers have told.

Enough that blessings undeserved
Have marked my erring track;
That, whereso’er my feet have swerved,
His chastening turned me back;

That more and more a providence
Of love is understood,
Making the springs of time and sense
Sweet with eternal good;

That death seems but a covered way
Which opens into light,
Wherein no blinded child can stray
Beyond the Father’s sight.

No longer forward nor behind
I look, in hope or fear;
But, grateful, take the good I find,
The best of now and here.