Famous Sad Poem

When we look at our work as a burden, we can quickly become discouraged and discontent. Often, people wish they didn't have to work, but there's a blessing in being able to work. To have a job is to have a gift. Henry van Dyke (1852-1933) challenges himself and others to change the way we look at our jobs. Even when work is challenging, exhausting, tedious, or overwhelming, let's look at the blessing we have.

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Today I committed to writing the overdue minutes of a quarterly meeting that I had put off for a long time. I made an impromptu trip out the mailbox to put off the task just a few minutes...

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Famous Poem

Work

By more Henry Van Dyke

Let me but do my work from day to day,
In field or forest, at the desk or loom,
In roaring market-place or tranquil room;
Let me but find it in my heart to say,
When vagrant wishes beckon me astray,
"This is my work; my blessing, not my doom;
"Of all who live, I am the one by whom
"This work can best be done in the right way."

Then shall I see it not too great, nor small,
To suit my spirit and to prove my powers;
Then shall I cheerful greet the labouring hours,
And cheerful turn, when the long shadows fall
At eventide, to play and love and rest,
Because I know for me my work is best.

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  • Michael Howard Evans by Michael Howard Evans
  • 3 months ago

Today I committed to writing the overdue minutes of a quarterly meeting that I had put off for a long time. I made an impromptu trip out the mailbox to put off the task just a few minutes longer. On the way, a poem I was forced to learn to recite aloud at 12 years of age by my favorite English teacher, Mary A. Parrish, at Wilson Jr. High School, in Muncie, IN, sixty-six years ago, filled my head. I recited it to myself as I walked to the box and back to the front door, Work by Henry Van Dyke!! It didn't inspire me to steer away from "vagrant wishes," but did make me smile enough to get started. Thank you, Henry VanDyke, Miss Mary A. Parrish, and rote learning exercises from the old days of 1958.

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