Slow me down, Lord.  Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind.  Steady my hurried pace with a vision of the eternal reach of time.  Give me, amidst the confusion of my day, the calmness of the everlasting hills.  

Break the tension of my nerves and muscles with the soothing music of the singing streams that lie in my memory.  Help me to know the magical restoring power of sleep.  Teach me the art of taking “minute vacations,” of pausing to look at a flower, to chat with a friend, to pat a dog, to read a few lines from a book.

Remind me each day of the fable of the hare and the tortoise, that I may know 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 towering oak, and know that it grew 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 great destiny.  Amen.

From LIFE Guide, A Resource for Wellness Planning, copyrighted by Wellsource Inc. 1988