I formed a master plan for life
  In the green years' dawning glow,
Not comprehending, naively,
  The truth I could not know.

I only planned for happy hours,
  I sketched in sunny days;
On my horizon not a cloud
  Presaged the storm god's ways.

I left no place, no room at all,
  For grief; could not foresee
That pain and loss were down the way,
  Just waiting there for me.

I could not know my firstborn son
  WOuld have a stay so brief
ANd leave behind an emptiness
  Akin to a fallen leaf.

I hadn't left a space for loss,
  I only planned for gain,
But I expected rainbows
   Though unprepared for rain.

My plan was aimed for large success.
  No page contained defeat;
No slow, discouraged footsteps
  Trudged down my private street.

Then when life didn't follow through
  The blueprint I had made,
I couldn't understand at all
  And found myself dismayed.

But life wrote other plans for me,
  Which, wisely, it withheld
 Until I learned I needed more
  Than what I'd blithely spelled.

And not in life's gray twilight,
  By pain and sorrow blessed,
I know how wisely life has planned:
  I know its plan was best.

 Gladys Lawler(age 93)