PTSW: Content

 "This is my story; this is my song!" 

Anyone with an evangelical upbringing like mine -- Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, or any of the myriad smaller denominations --- grew up singing those words often and could not help but be at least vaguely familiar with the name Fanny Crosby.  She published over 8000 hymns and gospel songs. She actually published songs under numerous pseudonyms because some publishers were reluctant to include multiple hymns by the same songwriter in their hymnals. 

She got a very early start. The blind poet and songwriter wrote these lines as an eight-year-old:

“Oh what a happy soul am I 

although I cannot see, 

I am resolved that in this world 

contented I shall be. 

How many blessings I enjoy 

that other people don’t. 

To weep and sigh, because I’m blind? 

I cannot and I won’t.”

— Fanny Crosby

Sometimes when I contemplate...

• the arthritis in my hands and feet, 
• the tiredness that comes earlier and earlier in the day, 
• the changing population of the earth as my contemporaries depart and others take their places, 
• Americans ignoring/forgetting the Preamble, 
• the climate degrading --- 

    --- all the clouds that darken my world, 

I am tempted to glower and complain. 

But the blind girl was right. What blessings I enjoy! 

Weep and sigh? 

I cannot and I won't.

I'll do what I can to proclaim truth and promote Love, and do my best to be content and enjoy the marvelous blessings I have. 

 "This is my story; this is my song!"