Slow me down, Lord. Slow me down!

Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind.... 

Give me amid the confusion of my day, the calmness of the everlasting hills.

Break the tensions of my nerves and muscles 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, to pat a dog,  to read a few lines from a good book.

Remind me each day of the fable of the hare and the tortoise,

that I may know 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 flowering oak 

and know that it is great and strong because 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.    

Wilferd A. Peterson