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)