<html aria-label="message body"><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div dir="auto" style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">School Prayer</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">In the name of the daybreak</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">and the eyelids of morning</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">and the wayfaring moon</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">and the night when it departs,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">I swear I will not dishonor</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">my soul with hatred,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">but offer myself humbly</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">as a guardian of nature,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">as a healer of misery,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">as a messenger of wonder,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">as an architect of peace.</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">In the name of the sun and its mirrors</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">and the day that embraces it</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">and the cloud veils drawn over it</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">and the uttermost night</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">and the male and the female</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">and the plants bursting with seed</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">and the crowning seasons</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">of the firefly and the apple,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">I will honor all life</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">—wherever and in whatever form</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">it may dwell—on Earth my home,</span><br style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap; font-size: 22px;">and in the mansions of the stars.</span><div style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></div><div style="font-size: 22px;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Diane Ackerman</span></div><br></div></body></html>