Author Unkown

I was doing some email inbox cleaning this afternoon, and came across this poem that a friend had sent me several months ago:

SLOW ME DOWN, LORD

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 march of time.
Give me amid the confusion of the day,
the calmness of the eternal hills.

Break the tension of my nerves
with the soothing music of the singing streams
that live 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 a 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 of 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 branches of the towering oak
and know that it grew slowly and well.

Slow me down Lord
and inspire me to send my roots deep
into the soil of life's enduring values
that I may grow toward the stars of my greater destiny.

There was no author attributed, so I went on an Internet hunt to find out who penned the words of wisdom. However, after searching multiple sites there was no clear consensus as to who wrote it. Depending on who you ask, it was written by Wilfred Arlan Peterson, Orin L. Crain, the pastor of their church, or the ancient Hittites. Pick one.

Five years ago today: A Little Out Of The Ordinary