"Patience Taught By Nature"

“O dreary life,” we cry, “O dreary life!”
And still the generations of the birds
Sing through our sighing, and the flocks and herds
Serenely live while we are keeping strife
With Heaven’s true purpose in us, as a knife
Against which we may struggle! Ocean girds
Unslackened the dry land: savannah-swards
Unweary sweep: hills watch unworn; and rife
Meek leaves drop yearly from the forest-trees,
To show, above, the unwasted stars that pass
In their old glory: O thou God of old!
Grant me some smaller grace than comes to these;—
But so much patience as a blade of grass
Grows by, contented through the heat and cold.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1845)

Today's GoogleDoodle got me reading up on Elizabeth Browning. The above poem made an impression on me. I don't go far these days but I don't have a dreary life. I learn new things that engage me every day amongst the birds, herds, hills and stars. I am as contented as a blade of grass. My faithful companion Jazzy dog can be seen out of focus behind my blade.