A Community of the Spirit
There is a community of the spirit.
Join it, and feel the delight
of walking in the noisy street
and being the noise.
Drink all your passion,
and be a disgrace.
Close both eyes
to see with the other eye.
Open your hands,
if you want to be held.
Sit down in the circle.
Quit acting like a wolf, and feel
the shepherd’s love filling you.
At night, your beloved wanders.
Don’t accept consolations.
Close your mouth against food.
Taste the lover’s mouth in yours.
You moan, “She left me.” “He left me.”
Twenty more will come.
Be empty of worrying.
Think of who created thought!
Why do you stay in prison
when the door is so wide open?
Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.
Live in silence.
Flow down and down in always
widening rings of being.
From Rumi
faith
A Poem About Courage by Ralph Waldo Emerson
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.
Keep A-Goin’! Poem by Frank L. Stanton
KEEP A-GOIN’!
Some men fail and quit. Some succeed and quit. The wise refuse to quit, whether they fail or succeed.
Ef you strike a thorn or rose, Keep a-goin’!
Ef it hails, or ef it snows, Keep a-goin!
‘Taint no use to sit an’ whine,
When the fish ain’t on yer line; Bait yer hook an’ keep a-tryin’—
Keep a-goin’!
When the weather kills yer crop, Keep a-goin’!
When you tumble from the top, Keep a-goin’!
S’pose you’re out of every dime, Bein’ so ain’t any crime;
Tell the world you’re feelin’ prime—
Keep a-goin’!
When it looks like all is up, Keep a-goin’!
Drain the sweetness from the cup, Keep a-goin’!
See the wild birds on the wing, Hear the bells that sweetly ring, When you feel like sighin’ sing—
Keep a-goin’!Frank L. Stanton.
From “The Atlanta Constitution.”
“Just Be Glad” ~ Poem by James Whitcomb Riley
Just Be Glad
O heart of mine, we shouldn’t
Worry so!
What we’ve missed of calm we couldn’t
Have, you know!
What we’ve met of stormy pain,
And of sorrow’s driving rain,
We can better meet again,
If it blow!We have erred in that dark hour
We have known,
When our tears fell with the shower,
All alone!–
Were not shine and shower blent
As the gracious Master meant?–
Let us temper our content
With His own.For, we know, not every morrow
Can be sad;
So, forgetting all the sorrow
We have had,
Let us fold away our fears,
And put by our foolish tears,
And through all the coming years
Just be glad.
_James Whitcomb Riley._
Something To Think About
“Where there is Faith there is Love,
Where there is Love there is Peace,
Where there is Peace there is God,
Where there is God there is no need.”
There is a divine voice within us which only speaks when every other voice is hushed,—only gives its message in the silence.
by Orison Swett Marden
Hope ~ Poem by Emily Dickinson
“Hope” is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all,And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.I’ve heard it in the chillest land
And on the strangest sea,
Yet never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.– Emily Dickinson
Rules for the Road ~ Poem by Edwin Markham on Confidence
Rules for the Road
Stand straight:
Step firmly, throw your weight:
The heaven is high above your head,
The good gray road is faithful to your tread.
Be strong:
Sing to your heart a battle song:
Though hidden foemen lie in wait, Something is in you that can smile at Fate.
Press through:
Nothing can harm if you are true.
And when the night comes, rest:
The earth is friendly as a mother’s breast.
Edwin Markham.
Song of Endeavor ~ Poem About Courage by James W. Foley
Song of Endeavor
Tis not by wishing that we gain the prize, Nor yet by ruing,
But from our falling, learning how to rise, And tireless doing.
The idols broken, nor our tears and sighs, May yet restore them.
Regret is only for fools; the wise Look but before them.
Nor ever yet Success was wooed with tears; To notes of gladness
Alone the fickle goddess turns her ears, She hears not sadness.
The heart thrives not in the dull rain and mist Of gloomy pining.
The sweetest flowers are the flowers sun-kissed, Where glad light’s shining.
Look not behind thee; there is only dust And vain regretting.
The lost tide ebbs; in the next flood thou must Learn, by forgetting.
For the lost chances be ye not distressed To endless weeping;
Be not the thrush that o’er the empty nest Is vigil keeping.
But in new efforts our regrets to-day To stillness whiling,
Let us in some pure purpose find the way To future smiling.
James W. Foley.
On Living a Meaningful Life
Advice from Theodore Roosevelt
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat… The man who does nothing cuts the same sordid figure in the pages of history, whether he be a cynic, or fop, or voluptuary. There is little use for the being whose tepid soul knows nothing of great and generous emotion, of the high pride, the stern belief, the lofty enthusiasm, of the men who quell the storm and ride the thunder.
Today’s Quote by St. Joan of Arc on Faith and Courage
“I am not afraid. I was born to do this.”
— Saint Joan of Arc
