You are all such beautiful Hearts and Spirits and People. Thank you. I forgot to say please excuse me if it takes me a bit to answer all of your lovely PMs. They are greatly appreciated and I will get back to you.

Thanks, Joy, for sharing that here. It is just beautiful. I'd also like to share this which was a favourite of Dad's:

A Cowboy's Prayer

    Oh, Lord, I've never lived where churches grow.
    I love creation better as it stood
    That day you finished it so long ago.
    And looked upon your work and called it good.
    I know that others might find You in the light
    That's sifted down through tinted window panes,
    And yet I seem to feel You near tonight.
In this dim, quiet starlight on the plains.

    Let me be easy on the man that's down;
    Let me be square and generous with all.
    I'm careless sometimes, Lord, when I'm in town,
    But never let them say I'm mean or small!
    Make me as big and open as the plains,
    As honest as the hoss between my knees,
    Clean as the wind that blows behind the rains,
    Free as the hawk that circles down the breeze!

    I thank you, Lord, that I am placed so well,
    That you made my freedom so complete;
    That I'm no slave to whistle, clock, or bell,
    Nor weak-eyed prisoner of wall and street.
    Just let me live my life as I've begun
    And give me work that is open to the sky;
    Make me a pardner of the wind and sun,
    And I won't ask a life that's soft or high.

    Forgive me, Lord, if sometimes I forget.
    You know about the reasons that are hid.
    You understand the things that gall and fret;
    You know me better than my mother did.
    Just keep an eye on all that's done and said
    And right me, sometimes, when I turn aside,
    And guide me on the long, dim trail ahead
    That stretches upward toward the Great Divide.

    Badger Clark

and, I think Dad would have loved this one I jsut found whilst looking for the above...it would have brought tears to his eyes as it has mine..a great new discovery:

I was moping around the outer corrals
of a friend of mine's ranch one day.
When I seen this old gray haired cowboy,
kneel down to the ground to pray.

He said, "Good morning Sir, it's just me again,
and I reckon I'm feeling alright,
except yesterday's heat hung on for quite a spell
and I didn't sleep much late last night.

But, I thought I'd stop and kinda talk awhile
just to let you know I'm still around.
I haven't accomplished a lot lately Lord,
I'm just trying to hold this cow job down.

Now you know how it is in the cow game Lord,
when the moisture all leaves the ground.
The grass all dies and the sand starts to blow
and it kinda of keeps the calf crop down.

Ya see, the water holes are nearly dried up Lord
and the cattle's getting thinner somewhat,
but, five or six days of good heavy rain
it'd sure help out a mighty lot.

Now I ain't got no favors to ask for myself,
I reckon things are alright by me,
except that climb to my saddle gets higher everyday
or maybe my knees are getting weak.

So excuse me Sir for taking up your time
but I had a few things to say,
we could sure use a little bit of moisture Sir
if you'd care to send a little bit our way."

Well I slowly turned and I walked away
and I stepped thru the door of a shed,
and I was down right ashamed for standing so quite
eaves-dropping the way that I did.

Just to think this old man, just a common hard hand,
although he never asked a thing for himself,
yet he knelt and talked to God like a friend
as he prayed for somebody else.

Well, we missed that old man at breakfast next morn
when he didn't sit down to his plate
and when we went to the bunkhouse we'd found him dead
but he died with a smile on his face.

And if you should wonder if this story is true
or if maybe it's just a refrain,
when we buried that old cowboy that same afternoon
it had already started to rain.

© Doyle R. Quinn I 1963