You Have To Smile When They’re Playing a Polka
The man who frets at worldly strife Grows sallow, sour, and thin;
Give us the lad whose happy life Is one perpetual grin:
He, Midas-like, turns all to gold— He smiles when others sigh, Enjoys alike the hot and cold,
And laughs though wet or dry.
There’s fun in everything we meet,— The greatest, worst, and best;
Existence is a merry treat, And every speech a jest:
So, come what may, the man’s in luck Who turns it all to glee,
And laughing, cries, with honest Puck, “Good Lord! what fools ye be.”Joseph Rodman Drake.
The real work is in the Heart:
Wake up your Heart! Because when the heart is completely awake,
Then it needs no Friend.
If there be some weaker one,
Give me strength to help him on;
If a blinder soul there be,
Let me guide him nearer Thee.
Make my mortal dreams come true
With the work I fain would do;
Clothe with life the weak intent,
Let me be the thing I meant;
Let me find in Thine employ
Peace that dearer is than joy!John Greenleaf Whittier.
I was neurotic for years. I was anxious and depressed and selfish. Everyone kept telling me to change. I resented them and I agreed with them, and I wanted to change, but simply couldn’t, no matter how hard I tried. Then one day someone said to me, Don’t change. I love you just as you are. Those words were music to my ears: Don’t change, Don’t change. Don’t change . . . I love you as you are. I relaxed. I came alive. And suddenly I changed!
As the bird trims her to the gale,
I trim myself to the storm of time,
I man the rudder, reef the sail,
Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime;
“Lowly faithful, banish fear,
Right onward drive unharmed;
The port, well worth the cruise, is near,
And every wave is charmed.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson.
We do not describe the world we see, we see the world we can describe.
Rene Descartes
