Life is Like a Patchwork Quilt

  Life isn't given us all of a piece;

          It's more like a patchwork quilt-

         Each hour and minute a patch to fit in

          To the pattern that's being built.

                     With some patches gay-and come patches dark,

             And some that seem ever so dull-

           But if we were given to set some apart,

         We'd hardly know which to cull.

                       For it takes the dark patches to set off the light,

           And the dull to show up the gay-

And, somehow, the pattern just wouldn't be right

If we took any part away.

No, life isn't given us all of a piece,

But in patches of hours to use,

That each can work out his pattern of life

To whatever design he might choose.

~ Helen Lowrie Marshall ~