GRATITUDE by Edgar A. Guest

Be grateful for the kindly friends
     That walk along your way;
Be grateful for the skies of blue
     That smile from day to day;

Be grateful for the health you own,
    The work you find to do,
For round about you there are men
     Less fortunate than you.

Be grateful for the growing trees,
     The roses soon to bloom,
The tenderness of kindly hearts
     That shared your days of gloom;

Be grateful for the morning dew,
     The grass beneath your feet,
The soft caresses of your babes
     And all their laughter sweet.

Acquire the grateful habit,
     Learn to see how blest you are,
How much there is to gladden life,
     How little life to mar!

And what if rain shall fall today
     And you with grief are sad;
Be grateful that you can recall
     The joys that you have had.

*Edgar A. Guest "The Poet of the People."  American poet.  His work first appeared in 1895 (age fourteen) in the Detroit Free Press ~ his column was syndicated in over three hundred newspapers.