If you are in the valley, make it a fruitful one.

Let the valley teach you even as it lays you low.

Let it sing its dirges and moan its depressions.

Make it a restful time.

I have been brought low in this valley of life.

And I have learned to be a psalmist of the everyday.

Singing at the keyboard as the waters roll over me.

Green sprouts arise in this valley.

Not that I consciously planted them.

They just seem to arise along with the utterances,

“Lord, show me They tender mercies because

I have none of my own to bestow.”

If you are in the valley, become the valley.

Teach yourself how to let the voice of the valley

become yours.

Make music in the valley. Make the mountains ring.