Slow me down, Lord.
Ease the pounding of my heart.
By the quieting of my mind.
Steady my hurried pace.
With a vision of the eternal reach of time.
Give me, amidst the confusion of my day,
The calmness of the everlasting hills.
Break the tensions of my nerves.
With the soothing music of the singing streams
That lives in my memory.
Help me to know
The magical restoring power of sleep.
Teach me the art of taking minute vacations
Of slowing down.
To look at a flower;
To chat with an old friend
or make a new one.
To pat a stray dog;
To watch a spider build a web;
To smile at a child;
Or to read a few lines from a good book.
Remind me each day that the race is not always to the swift;
That there is more to life than increasing its speed.
Let me look upward into the branche
