Remembering Helen Steiner Rice

I just  received a note from  Odette, one of my friends who will take her short vacation in a few months and she excitedly told me that she was able to order a  hardbound copy of  Poems and Prayers of Helen Steiner Rice from Barnes and Noble. Wow, if that would not make you smile, I don’t know what will. She said that she was also able to buy a book of poem by Mary Oliver, Thomas Merton’s Thoughts in Solitude, Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s  and Haruki Murakami’s Wild Sheep Chase. Gosh,  it’s a  dream come true and wish list fulfilled 🙂

I never owned a book by Helen Steiner Rice, the only times I was able to encounter her inspirational words were through Hallmark cards that I received through the years. I could imagine myself perusing the book right now. This is it – the joy of finally owning a copy. When I was in college, I used to fill up thick notebooks of quotations which I collected from my readings and through my stay at the Humanities Section of the library of the university where I graduated. UST or USTe as we Thomasians fondly call it, has a vast selection of literary works and other inspirational books that you wished were kept in your personal collections.  Anyway, the poems and prayers of Helen Steiner Rice were a bright beacon to my college years. And I remember some of her beautiful quotes written in scented pens on my notebook.

She was considered as  the “unofficial poet laureate of hope and optimism.” She died in 1981 but she left behind a legacy  to millions of readers whom she has touched through her writings.

So rest and relax and grow stronger, Let go and let God share your load, Your work is not finished or ended, You’ve just come to “a bend in the road”.

“When you ask God for a gift, be thankful if  He sends, not diamonds, pearls or riches, but the love of real true friends.”

“It takes a Mother’s Love to make a house a home, a place to be remembered, no matter where we roam.” 

“When you are in troubled and worried and sick at heart
And your plans are upset and your world falls apart,
Remember God’s ready and waiting to share
The burden you find much to heavy to bear–
So with faith, “Let Go and Let GOD” lead your way.

And this simple poem, says it all. It’s entitled This Too Shall Pass.

This Too Shall Pass

If I can endure for this minute Whatever is happening to me, No matter how heavy my heart is Or how dark the moment may be- If I can remain calm and quiet With all the world crashing about me, Secure in the knowledge God loves me When everyone else seems to doubt me- If I can but keep on believing What I know in my heart to be true, That darkness will fade with the morning And that this will pass away, too- Then nothing in life can defeat me For as long as this knowledge remains I can suffer whatever is happening For I know God will break all of the chains That are binding me tight in the darkness And trying to fill me with fear- For there is no night without dawning And I know that my morning is near.

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