discipline of contentment
i do not know
when i have had happier times
in my soul
than when i have been sitting at work,
with nothing before me
but a candle and a white cloth,
and hearing no sound
but that of my own breath;
with God in my soul
and heaven in my eye.
i rejoice in being exactly what i am
–a creature capable of loving God,
and who, as long as God lives,
must be happy.
i get up
and look a while out the window.
i gaze at the moon and stars,
the work of an Almighty Hand.
i think of the grandeur of the universe
and then sit down
and think myself
one of the happiest
beings in it.
–A Poor Methodist Woman (18th century)