I thought this poem was more worthy for my first blogspot post than rambling thoughts off the top of my head...
A Prayer for the Children (Author unknown)
We pray for the children
who sneak popsicles before supper,
who erase holes in math workbooks,
who can never find their shoes.
And we pray for those
who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire,
who can't bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers,
who never "counted potatoes,"
who are born in places where we wouldn't be caught dead,
who never go to the circus,
who live in an X-rated world.
We pray for the children
who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions,
who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money.
And we pray for those
who never get dessert,
who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,
who watch their parents watch them die,
who can't find bread to steal,
who don't have rooms to clean up,
whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser,
whose monsters are real.
We Pray for the Children
who spend their allowance before Tuesday,
who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food,
who like ghost stories,
who shove dirty clothes under the bed,
who never rinse out the tub,
who get visits from the tooth fairy,
who don't like to be kissed in front of the carpool,
who squirm in church and scream in the phone,
whose tears we sometimes laugh at and
whose smiles can make us cry.
And we pray for those
Whose nightmares come in the daytime,
Who will eat anything
Who have never seen dentist,
Who aren't spoiled by anybody,
Who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
Who live and move, but have no being
We pray for the children
Who want to be carried and for those who must,
Who we never give up on and for those who don't get a second chance.
We pray for those we smother and for those who will grab the hand of
anybody kind enough to offer it.
***
I'm not too proud to admit this poem brought tears to my eyes.
It's up to us to become advocates for the planet
It's up to us to do something
To make this world a better place
Not just for ourselves
But for all the children in this world
I had a friend ask me today
What could he do to make it better
And all i could think to say
Was just do what you can
Wherever you can
No matter how big or how small
Just a simple act of kindness
Might be contagious
And might spread like a virus
Because something you did
Might be something somebody needed
And never expected they would get
From a stranger
It's the small things that count more
Than the big things
Because they stay with us the longest
We don't remember the great things someone did for us
But we never forget some small and cruel thing
That someone small did to us
I told my friend
Nobody can change the world by themselves
But everybody can do one thing
One small thing that will make the world
A little bit better
For someone else
"Change" doesn't happen overnight
It doesn't happen because of a national convention
Or because we walk into a voting booth
And push a button on a black box
Real change happens
One person at a time
