Small Graces  

    The following brief essay is excerpted

from a wonderful little book,

"Small Graces"

by Kent Nerburn.

I wish I could take credit,

but I had nothing to do with it, and only would like to share these thoughts that Mr. Nerburn crafted so beautifully. 

The Gift Of Dawn 

 "I have risen early today. Far in the distance, a faint glow paints the horizon. Dawn is coming gently and full of prayer.

I step quietly from my bed, alive to the silences around me. This is the quiet time, the time of innocence and soft thoughts, the childhood of the day.

Now is the moment when I must pause and lift my heart, now, before the day fragments and my consciousness shatters into a thousand pieces. For this is the moment when the senses are most alive, when a thought, a touch, a piece of music can shape the spirit and color of the day.

 Something precious is lost if we rush headlong into the details of life without pausing for a moment to pay homage to the mystery of life and the gift of another day. 

 It need not be much. A prayer whispered quietly, a gentle touching of a flower or plant, a momentary gaze upon a sleeping child, a second's stillness in the presence of the light. Any of these will do. What is needed is only a pausing of the heart so the spirit can take wing.

I walk silently toward the window. The darkness is lifting. A thin shaft of lavender has creased the horizon, setting the edges of trees on fire with morning light. I pause and bow my head. For this brief moment, I am held in the hand of God, and I am sent forth into the morning with the poetry of possibility beating in my heart"

Kent Nerburn, 1998

Simple Gifts

Appalachian Spring By

Aaron Copeland