From Gatiss Gardens, South of Glacier National Park, 1980s

 “The following ‘A Prayer’ I came across as a clipping many years ago. A copy graced my various offices over a period of sixty-plus years of public service, in milling, electric power, and banking. In later years it has been a part of the Gatiss Gardens. There is a lot of good living in ‘A Prayer’. People like it, copies are made and photos taken, plus many who pause to read, think, and carry the good memory home with them. It has been a quite needed inspiration to me many times over—and I sincerely hope it will be to you also.”

Robert H. Gatiss

A Prayer

Let me do my work each day; and if the darkened hours of despair overcome me, may I not forget the strength that comforted me in the desolation of other times. May I still remember the bright hours that found me walking over the silent hills of my childhood, or dreaming on the margin of the quiet river, when a light flowed within me, and I promised my early God to have courage amid the tempests of the changing years.

     Spare me from bitterness and from the sharp passions of unguarded moments. May I not forget that poverty and riches are of the spirit. Though the world know me not, may my thoughts and actions be such as shall keep me friendly with myself. Lift my eyes from the earth, and let me not forget the uses of the stars. Forbid that I should judge others lest I condemn myself. Let me not follow the clamor of the world, but walk calmly in my path.

     Give me a few friends who will love me for what I am; and keep ever burning before my vagrant steps the kindly light of hope. And though age and infirmity overtake me, and I come not within sight of the castle of my dreams, teach me still to be thankful for life, and for time’s olden memories that are good and sweet; and may the evening’s twilight find me gentle still.

—Max Ehrmann