This seems to be my week for moving poetry.  Or maybe it is just my heart is more open and receptive.  What do you think of this one?

Whatever may be the tensions
and the stresses of a particular day,
there is always lurking close at hand
the trailing beauty
of forgotten joy
or unremembered peace.

Howard Thurman
from Meditations of the Heart

Thurman was born in 1900 in Daytona Beach, Fla. He believed that the authentic religion of Jesus always takes special interest in the concerns of the poor and the oppressed, even if Christianity does not. Thurman also believed that deep and genuine religious experiences unite people of different backgrounds, rather than divide them.

Thurman served as Dean of the chapel at Morehouse College, Howard and Boston University.  He was very influential in the civil rights movement and a friend of Martin Luther King, Jr.

I think about someone who grew up under segregation writing those words.  It makes me feel as if my own tensions and stresses are pretty insignificant in comparison.  And if that is the case, how much more important it must be for me to find that trailing beauty, forgotten joy or unremembered peace.

Take a moment to think about this particular day in your life.  What stresses and tensions are you experiencing.  Is it possible to see through them to that joy or beauty?  Feels better than the stress doesn’t it?

Just when you think the whole world is going to hell in a handbasket something amazing happens.  Go to this link and then click on February 19th.  This is the most amazing thing I have ever heard from a late night comic.  Maybe there is hope after all if you can stay awake long enough!

http://www.cbs.com/latenight/latelate/comedy/