Good things are headed my way.
Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.
~ Anton Chekov
Life is Love
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Is anyone sad in the world, I wonder?
Does anyone weep on a day like this,
With the sun above and the green earth under?
Why, what is life but a dream of bliss?
With the sun and the skies and the birds above me,
Birds that sing as they wheel and fly –
With the winds to follow and say they loved me –
Who could be lonely? O ho, not I!
Somebody said in the street this morning,
As I opened my window to let in the light,
That the darkest day of the world was dawning;
But I looked, and the East was a gorgeous sight
One who claims that he knows about it
Tells me the Earth is a vale of sin;
But I and the bees and the birds – we doubt it,
And think it a world worth living in.
Someone says that hearts are fickle,
That love is sorrow, that life is care,
And the reaper Death, with his shining sickle,
Gathers whatever is bright and fair.
I told the thrush, and we laughed together –
Laughed till the woods were all a-ring;
And he said to me, as he plumed each feather,
“Well, people must croak, if they cannot sing!”
Up he flew, but his song, remaining,
Rang like a bell in my heart all day,
And silenced the voices of weak complaining
That pipe like insects along the way.
O world of light, and O world of beauty!
Where are there pleasures so sweet as thine?
Yes, life is love, and love is duty;
And what heart sorrows? O no, not mine!
I believe in my dreams.
So what if I don’t know what “Armageddon” means?
It’s not the end of the world.
If you think leaving just a little something on your plate won’t matter, think again. It will. Small amounts of uneaten food add up to calories that stay on the plate – not on you.
Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up. ~ Jane Yolen
A Good Man
James Whitcomb Riley
I
A good man never dies –
In worthy deed and prayer
And helpful hands, and honest eyes,
If smiles or tears be there:
Who lives for you and me –
Lives for the world he tries
To help – he lives eternally.
A good man never dies.
II
Who lives to bravely take
His share of toil and stress,
And, for his weaker fellows’ sake,
Makes every burden less, –
He may, at last, seem worn –
Lie fallen – hands and eyes
Folded – yet, though we mourn and mourn,
A good man never dies.
Try a loving-kindness meditation.
Sit quietly, breathe normally, and repeat the phrase “May I be happy, may I be peaceful,” says Salzberg. Whenever your attention wanders, gently let those thoughts go and come back to the phrase. After repeating that phrase for yourself, offer it up to include all beings everywhere, saying “May all things be happy, may all things be peaceful.”
Be willing to move forward and find out what happens next. ~ Frank Shorter
