life

"My grandpa notes the world's worn cogsAnd says we're going to the dogs.His grandpa in his house of logsSaid things were going to the dogs.His grandpa in the Flemish bogsSaid things were going to the dogs.His grandpa in his hairy togsSaid things were going to the dogs.But this is what I wish to state.The dogs have had an awful wait."

WHAT IS LIFE?Life is an Adventure ... Dare itLife is a Beauty ... Praise itLife is a Challenge ... Meet itLife is a Duty ... Perform itLife is a Love ... Enjoy itLife is a Tragedy ... Face itLife is a Struggle ... Fight itLife is a Promise ... Fulfill itLife is a Game ... Play itLife is a Gift ... Accept itLife is a Journey ... Complete itLife is a Mystery ... Unfold itLife is a Goal ... Achieve itLife is an Opportunity ... Take itLife is a Puzzle ... Solve itLife is a Song ... Sing itLife is a Sorrow ... Overcome itLife is a Spirit ... Realize it

There is no Gain in the world: so be it: but neither is there any Loss. There is never any failure to this infinite freshness of life, and the ancient novelty is forever renewed. We realize the world better if we imagine it, not as a Progress to Prim Perfection, but as the sustained upleaping of a Fountain, the pillar of a Glorious Flame. For, after all, we cannot go beyond the ancient image of Heraclitus, the "Ever-living Flame, kindled in due measure and in the like measure extinguished." That translucent and mysterious Flame shines undyingly before our eyes, never for two moments the same, and always miraculously incalculable, an ever-flowing stream of fire. The world is moving, men tell us, to this, to that, to the other. Do not believe them! Men have never known what the world is moving to. Who foresaw--to say nothing of older and vaster events--the Crucifixion? What Greek or Roman in his most fantastic moments prefigured our thirteenth century? What Christian foresaw the Renaissance? Who ever really expected the French Revolution? We cannot be too bold, for we are ever at the incipient point of some new manifestation far more overwhelming than all our dreams. No one can foresee the next aspect of the Fountain of Life. And all the time the Pillar of that Flame is burning at exactly the same height it has always been burning at! The World is everlasting Novelty, everlasting Monotony. It is just which aspect you prefer. You will always be right.
"Nine requisites for contented living: Health enough to make work a pleasure.Wealth enough to support your needs. Strength to battle with difficulties and overcome them. Grace enough to confess your sins and forsake them. Patience enough to toil until some good is accomplished. Charity enough to see some good in your neighbor.Love enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others. Faith enough to make real the things of God. Hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future."

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 tomorrowFind us farther than today.Art is long, and Time is fleeting,And our heats, though stout and brave,Still, like muffled drums, are beatingFuneral 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 deadAct,- act in the living Present!Heart within, and God o'erhead.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.


I count it happiness,Ere we go quickly thither whence we came,To gaze ungrieving on these majesties,The world-wide sun, the stars, water and clouds,and fire. Live, Parmeno, a hundred yearsOr a few months, these you will always seeand never, never, any greater things.Think of this life-time as a festivalOr visit to a strange city, full of noise,Buying and selling, thieving, dicing stallsAnd joy parks. If you leave it early, friend,Why, think you have gone to find a better inn:You have paid your fare and leave no enemies.
Nay, do not grieve tho' life be full of sadness,Dawn will not veil her spleandor for your grief,Nor spring deny their bright, appointed beautyTo lotus blossom and ashoka leaf.Nay, do not pine, tho' life be dark with trouble,Time will not pause or tarry on his way;To-day that seems so long, so strange, so bitter,Will soon be some forgotten yesterday.Nay, do not weep; new hopes, new dreams, new faces,The unspent joy of all the unborn years,Will prove your heart a traitor to its sorrow,And make your eyes unfaithful to their tears.

Before the beginning of yearsThere came to the making of manTime, with a gift of tears; Grief, with a glass that ran; Pleasure, with pain for leaven; Summer, with flowers that fell; Remembrance, fallen from heaven, And madness risen from hell; Strength without hands to smite; Love that endures for a breath; Night, the shadow of light, And Life, the shadow of death.


A mighty monarch in the days of oldMade offer of high honour, wealth and gold,To one who should produce in form conciseA motto for his guidance, terse yet wise---A precept, soothing in his hours forlorn,Yet one that in his prosperous days would warn.Many the maxims sent the king, men say.The one he chose: "This too shall pass away."Oh, jewel sentence from the mine of truth!What riches it contains for age or youth.No stately epic, measured and sublime,So comforts, or so counsels, for all timeAs these few words. Go write them on your heartAnd make them of your daily life a part.Has some misfortune fallen to your lot?This too will pass away--absorb the thought.And wait; your waiting will not be in vain,Time gilds with gold the iron links of pain.The dark to-day leads into light to-morrow;There is no endless joy, no endless sorrow.Are you upon earth's heights? No cloud in view?Go read your motto once again: This tooShall pass away; fame, glory, place and power,They are but little baubles of the hour,Flung by the ruthless years down in the dust.Take warning and be worthy of God's trust.Use well your prowess while it lasts; leave bloom,Not blight, to mark your footprints to the tomb.The truest greatness lies in being kind,The truest wisdom in a happy mind.He who desponds, his Maker's judgment mocks;The gloomy Christian is a paradox.Only the sunny soul respects its God.Since life is short we need to make it broad;Since life is brief we need to make it bright.Then keep the old king's motto well in sight,And let its meaning permeate each day.Whatever comes, This too shall pass away.