A Psalm of Life ~ Poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

A Psalm Of Life

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

What the heart of the young man said to the psalmist

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream! –
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world’s broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, — act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o’erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

Remember ~ Poem by Christina Rossetti

Remember

by Christina Rossetti

Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann’d:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

Quote for Today – January 1, 2018

Today’s Quote

For all that has been, thank you. To all that shall be, Yes. ~ Dag Hammarskjold

 

The Road Less Traveled

Our lives are made up of choices. We constantly choose between competing alternatives. Most of the times the choices are easy. Sometime the choices are difficult. We may ask ourselves if we should play it safe. Or, should we risk venturing into an unknown future trusting in an inner GPS to guide us. The following Vimeo video is about choices and I know you’ll enjoy Robert Frost reading his famous poem, “The Road Less Traveled.”

 

Do I Need This Conversation?

La Flor Series Episode 1

“What’s today’s topic, Ray. More nonsense?”

“Do I need to have this conversation now?”

“I can’t think of a better time, Ray. What about the meal you cooked last night? Sorry, you tossed it and sent out for pizza. Watch the waistline buddy. Pizza straight from the lips to the hips.”

“It was only a twelve-inch pizza with mushrooms, peppers, and onions.”

“I noticed you were scrapping the extra cheese off the box at the end.”

“It’s a guy thing. We don’t like to waste.”

“What about your secret admirer?”

“I don’t have a secret admirer. What are you talking about?”

“I know you don’t have a secret admirer, but you’d like one, right?”

“No. Are we through?”

“We haven’t started. You still don’t have an idea for today’s blog. Do I have to do all your thinking? Look at the data. I give you an idea, you get lots of views. You toss my ideas out and no one shows. Tell you something?”

“Yes, it tells me something. I’m asking myself why I created you. You have an acerbic tongue, an attitude that needs a lot of re-writing, and …”

“Don’t go there.”

“Where?”

“There, you know where. Let’s have a conversation about my character. Your audience doesn’t know if I am male or female. I don’t have a name? I don’t have a description. I exist at your beck and call as an anonymous student, oh give me a break. Couldn’t you be a tad more creative?”

“I was having an off day.”

“You can have an off day. If I have an off day. I’m written out of the script. That’s another thing I want to clear up, I want a job description.”

“Next thing I know you’ll want to unionize.”

“You bring in any more characters, I’m on it. We’ll go strike if you don’t meet our demands.”

“Listen to yourself. You don’t have a name. You’re genderless. And, you’re a figment of my imagination. You only have the demands I let you have.”

“You are so difficult to have a simple conversation to try to come to common understandings.”

“Okay. What gender do you want?”

“I’ve given it thought. I want to be a woman with an attitude.”

“Great. I’ll introduce you to my five daughters, they’ll give you lessons.”

“They already have, and all six of us are on to your games.”

“Huuh?”

“We’re making progress, Ray. Perhaps a reader will suggest a name for me. It’s obvious your name generating creativity is in the slow lane.”

 

 

 

Working through differences is hard work. It takes a willingness to set aside differences. It takes a willingness to listen and learn. It takes a willingness to see with a new set of eyes. The effort to work together to achieve mutually beneficial solutions always creates a better future.

I Like Who I Am

Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your future.
– Robert H. Schuller

I am who am. I can be nothing more than what I am. It doesn’t matter so much if others like who I am as much as it matters that I like who I am. I do. I very much like who I am. I wasn’t alway this way. I tried to polish my image. I sandpapered the rough edges. None seemed to help. Then, one day, a moment of grace. I understood, at a deep level, I am the cumulative sum of all my experiences, the good and the bad. The joys and the sorrows. The successes and the failures. It’s all me. I knew in that moment if I were to ever love myself and like who I am, I had to embrace it all. All of it, the stuff I wanted and the stuff I wish never happened that made me into what I am today. I am grateful for all that was, and is and is to come. I like me, who I am, and what I am becoming.

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