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Day 20 NOURISHMENT | 
A Pause for Blessing

 
A Prayer by Paul Laurence Dunbar
 
The son of formerly enslaved parents and a classmate of aviation pioneer Orville Wright, Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the first African Americans to gain widespread fame as a poet. His ability to use different conversational dialects made his works accessible to a vast audience. This particular prayer was written as a personal retrospection not long before he died at the age of thirty-four, in 1906, from tuberculosis.
 
O LORD, the hard-won miles
 
Have worn my stumbling feet:
 
Oh, soothe me with thy smiles,
 
And make my life complete.
 
The thorns were thick and keen
 
Where’er I trembling trod;
 
The way was long between
 
My wounded feet and God.
 
Where healing waters flow
 
Do thou my footsteps lead.
 
My heart is aching so;
 
Thy gracious balm I need.
 
 
Pause to acknowledge the many miles your feet have carried you this past year. Your feet have carried you to today. What kindness can you show your feet–your body–for bringing you here? Can you offer a soak in epsom salts, a massage, or lotion? Offer God thanks and whatever else is on your heart this day.
 
 

 
Formed well to love well
 
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