'Tis A Gift To Be Simple...

In this season of Thanksgiving, I am pleased to be able to report that I have arrived at the end of several long journeys. Not through any stroke of luck, but through simple, persistent effort. The gift of success has been its own quiet reward and immediately brought to mind a favorite American Shaker hymn and Aaron Copeland's music for it; appropriate for a Thanksgiving holiday.

I am pleased to report that after fourteen years of payments I have finally eliminated my college education loans. In the same month, I also had corrective surgery on my eyes. I waited ten years for this procedure until the technology was safe enough for my liking. So after more than a decade of patience, I have arrived debt and glasses free.

Simple Gifts

'Tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be free,

'Tis a gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain'd,

To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,

To turn, turn will be our delight

'Till by turning, turning we come round right.

Simple Gifts was written by Shaker Elder Joseph Brackett, Jr. in 1848. It was first published in The Gift to be Simple: Shaker Rituals and Songs. Simple Gifts was a work song sung by the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing (more commonly called the Shakers, an offshoot of the Quakers).