Reece Magic• Show poetry

Well now, what can I say about myself? I love to write, I love poetry, I love stories, I love them all. My most favorite time of year would be Christmas, for it represents so much love, kinship, and the like.

I believe that life is a circle. As long as we live, the circle continues, and when it is over, a straight line appears, but that is not the end. Our souls still has a plight of it's own.

I believe that there is no need to worry. Why worry when whatever you worry about will only cause you stress? Maybe even pain? It will happen, or it will not, so worrying is just a waste of time. You can be concerned, but to worry is just added stress to an already stressful life.

Do not concern yourself of your future, for some will feel that they are failures because they haven't succeeded to the level they want to succeed at, and yet, they are still pretty young. Life is a marathon, don't rush through it, live it. Remember, anything worth something takes time, and anything worth everything takes a long time to do. Complete success, takes time. Complete and utter happiness, takes time. Life fulfillment, takes much more time. And love, even love, takes time. Time heals all wounds, yes, perhaps. But a wounded heart never completely heals, just survives, and moves on.

We as people are concerned with so much that isn't really even important, and we understand that when life nears the end for us, or when we go through a near death experience. It is the little things that matter. And the legacy you leave behind is the legacy that your family will have to take with them when you are gone. Kindness is of the utmost importance, and life, is precious.


"All questions, in some form, in some way, in some time, during this life, or after, shall be answered unto those who seek them!"

 MAURICE HARRIS 10/01/08

 

IRISH BLESSINGS

 “May God grant you always...A sunbeam to warm you, a moonbeam to charm you, a sheltering Angel so nothing can harm you. Laughter to cheer you. Faithful friends near you. And whenever you pray, Heaven to hear you.”

“May we live in peace without weeping. May our joy outline the lives we touch without ceasing. And may our love fill the world, angel wings tenderly beating.”

“May those who love us, love us; and those who don't love us, may God turn their hearts; and if He doesn't turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles so we'll know them by their limping.”

“May God give you...For every storm a rainbow, for every tear a smile, for every care a promise and a blessing in each trial. For every problem life sends, a faithful friend to share, for every sigh a sweet song and an answer for each prayer.”

“May flowers always line your path and sunshine light your day. May songbirds serenade you every step along the way. May a rainbow run beside you in a sky that's always blue. And may happiness fill your heart each day your whole life through.”

“May you always have work for your hands to do.
May your pockets hold always a coin or two.
May the sun shine bright on your windowpane.
May the rainbow be certain to follow each rain.
May the hand of a friend always be near you.
And may God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.”

“May the friendships you make be those which endure and all of your grey clouds be small ones for sure. And trusting in Him to Whom we all pray, may a song fill your heart every step of the way.”

“May your days be many and your troubles be few. May all God's blessings descend upon you. May peace be within you may your heart be strong. May you find what you're seeking wherever you roam.”

“May the saddest day of your future be no worse than the happiest day of your past”

“May the strength of God pilot us, may the wisdom of God instruct us, may the hand of God protect us, may the word of God direct us. Be always ours this day and for evermore. - St. Patrick”

“May you get to heaven a half hour before the devil knows you're dead”

“May brooks and trees and singing hills join in the chorus too, and every gentle wind that blows send happiness to you.”



I shall pass this way but once, therefore, whatever good I might do,
Let me do it now, for I will never pass this way again.
UNKNOWN POET


I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good things, therefore, that I can do, any kindness that I can show a fellow being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. --Stephen Grellet


I Shall Not Pass This Way Again

Through this toilsome world, alas!
Once and only once I pass;
If a kindness I may show,
If a good deed I may do
To a suffering fellow man,
Let me do it while I can.
No delay for it is plain
I shall not pass this way again



EVEN THIS SHALL PASS AWAY

Once in Persia reigned a king,
Who upon his signet ring
Graved a maxim true and wise,
Which, if held before his eyes,
Gave him counsel at a glance
Fit for every change and chance.
Solemn words, and these are they;
"Even this shall pass away."

Trains of camels through the sand
Brought him gems from Samarcand;
Fleets of galleys through the seas
Brought him pearls to match with these;
But he counted not his gain
Treasures of the mine or main;
"What is wealth?" the king would say;
"Even this shall pass away."

Mid the revels of his court,
At the zenith of his sport,
When the palms of all his guests
Burned with clapping at his jests,
He, amid his figs and wine,
Cried, "O loving friends of mine;
Pleasures come, but not to stay;
Even this shall pass away."

Lady, fairest ever seen,
Was the bride he crowned his queen.
Pillowed on his marriage bed,
Softly to his soul he said:
"Though no bridegroom ever pressed
Fairer bosom to his breast,
Mortal flesh must come to clay--
Even this shall pass away."

Fighting on a furious field,
Once a javelin pierced his shield;
Soldiers, with a loud lament,
Bore him bleeding to his tent.
Groaning from his tortured side,
"Pain is hard to bear," he cried;
"But with patience, day by day,
Even this shall pass away."

Towering in the public square,
Twenty cubits in the air,
Rose his statue, carved in stone.
Then the king, disguised, unknown,
Stood before his sculptured name,
Musing meekly: "What is fame?
Fame is but a slow decay;
Even this shall pass away."

Struck with palsy, sore and old,
Waiting at the Gates of Gold,
Said he with his dying breath,
"Life is done, but what is Death?"
Then, in answer to the king,
Fell a sunbeam on his ring,
Showing by a heavenly ray,
"Even this shall pass away."
—Theodore Tilton


We will meet again my friend,
A hundred years from today
Far away from where we lived
And where we used to play.

We will know each others' eyes
And wonder where we met
Your laugh will sound familiar
Your heart, I won't forget.

We will meet, I'm sure of this,
But let's not wait till then...
Let's take a walk beneath the stars
And share 'this' world again.

"Let's Not Wait"
by Ron Atchison


"If I could, I'd comb the sky
and collect the stars,
quickly pile them into a basket
until it overflowed with silvery light.
And then I'd give the basket to you,
because all things precious
and beautiful
should be yours today."

Author Unknown


A MUST READ FOR ALL

A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation. The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But a few days later he came back to return the stone to the wise woman.

‘I've been thinking,’ he said, ‘I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone.’”


The Wise Woman's Stone
Author Unknown

QUOTES BY GAIL SHEEHY
“If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really living.”

Ah, mastery... what a profoundly satisfying feeling when one finally gets on top of a new set of skills... and then sees the light under the new door those skills can open, even as another door is closing.

Changes are not only possible and predictable, but to deny them is to be an accomplice to one's own unnecessary vegetation.

The secret of a leader lies in the tests he has faced over the whole course of his life and the habit of action he develops in meeting those tests.

To be tested is good. The challenged life may be the best therapist.

 

QUOTES ABOUT GIVING
If nature has made you a giver, your hands are born open, and so is your heart. And though there may be times when your hands are empty, your heart is always full, and you can give things out of that.

Frances Hodgson Burnett


You have it easily in your power to increase the sum total of this world's happiness now. How? By giving a few words of sincere appreciation to someone who is lonely or discouraged.

Dale Carnegie


A pessimist, they say, sees a glass of water as being half empty; an optimist sees the same glass as half full. But a giving person sees a glass of water and starts looking for someone who might be thirsty.

G. Donald Gale


And while it takes courage to achieve greatness, it takes more courage to find fulfillment in being ordinary. For the joys that last have little relationship to achievement, to standing one step higher on the victory platform. What is the adventure in being ordinary? It is daring to love just for the pleasure of giving it away. It is venturing to give new life and to nurture it to maturity. It is working hard for the pure joy of being tired at the end of the day. It is caring and sharing and giving and loving…

Marilyn Thomsen


Realize that true happiness lies within you. Waste no time and effort searching for peace and contentment and joy in the world outside. Remember that there is no happiness in having or in getting, but only in giving. Reach out. Share. Smile. Hug. Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.

Og Mandino


When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.

Henri Nouwen


There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life - happiness, freedom and peace of mind - are always attained by giving them to someone else.

Peyton Conway March

 

Live your life so that the fear of death can never enter your heart. When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the morning light. Give thanks for your life and strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. And if perchance you see no reason for giving thanks, rest assured the fault is in yourself.

Chief Tecumseh, Shawnee Indian Chief

 

SAYINGS BY MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

"Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal."

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

“Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'”

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically... Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.”

“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and consciencious stupidity.”

“Whatever your life's work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.”

“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”

“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”

“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.”

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.”

“The question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be... The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.”

“We are not makers of history. We are made by history.”

“That old law about 'an eye for an eye' leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.”

“The time is always right to do what is right.”

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”

“The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"”

“Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' But conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but because conscience tells one it is right.”

“When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative.”

“A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.”

“An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”

“Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.”

“The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important.”

 

 

SAYINGS BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN

"If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what's said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference."

 

"Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it."

 

"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy."

 

"Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."

 

"I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal."

 

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause."

 

"Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them."

 

"I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day."

 

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."

 

"I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me."

 

"...I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side."

 

"In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just - a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless."

 

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."

 

"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other."

 

"I would rather be defeated with this expression ('house divided against itself cannot stand') in the speech, and uphold and discuss it before the people, than be victorious without it."

 

"Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came."

 

"I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot."

 

"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."

 

"Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed."

 

"...that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

 

"I have never studied the art of paying compliments to women; but I must say that if all that has been said by orators and poets since the creation of the world in praise of women were applied to the women of America, it would not do them justice for their conduct during this war. I will close by saying, God bless the women of America!"

 

"I have not permitted myself, gentlemen, to conclude that I am the best man in the country; but I am reminded, in this connection, of a story of an old Dutch farmer who remarked to a companion once that 'it was not best to swap horses while crossing streams'."

 

"Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally."

 

"Perhaps a man's character was like a tree, and his reputation like its shadow; the shadow is what we think of it, the tree is the real thing."

 

"The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the  support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter me."

 

"Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today."

 

"In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book."

 

"Property is the fruit of labor...property is desirable...is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built."

 

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."

 

"My friends, no one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when, or whether ever, I may return, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of the Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell."

 

"Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser - in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough."

 

"I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races - that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything."

 

"I have never said anything to the contrary, but I hold that notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these as the white man. I agree with Judge Douglas he is not my equal in many respects---certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowment. But in the right to eat the bread, without leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man. "

 

"I have stepped out upon this platform that I may see you and that you may see me, and in the arrangement I have the best of the bargain."

 

"The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is something different from the purpose of either party - and yet the human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of the best adaptation to effect His purpose."

 

"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

 

"What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried?"

 

"We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name - liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names - liberty and tyranny."

 

"There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law."

 

"I happen temporarily to occupy this big White House. I am living witness that any one of your children may look to come here as my father's child has."

 

"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."

 

"I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union."

 

"I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts, that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom."

 

"It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: 'And this, too, shall pass away.' How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!"

 

"If all do not join now to save the good old ship of the Union this voyage nobody will have a chance to pilot her on another voyage."

 

"Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes."

 

"I am not a Know-Nothing. That is certain. How could I be? How can any one who abhors the oppression of negroes, be in favor of degrading classes of white people? Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid. As a nation, we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except Negroes." When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except Negroes and foreigners and Catholics." When it comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty - to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure and without the base alloy of hypocrisy."

 

"Stand with anybody that stands RIGHT. Stand with him while he is right and PART with him when he goes wrong."

 

"To state the question more directly, are all the laws, but one, to go unexecuted, and the government itself go to pieces, lest that one be violated? Even in such a case, would not the official oath be broken, if the government should be overthrown, when it was believed that disregarding the single law, would tend to preserve it? But it was not believed that this question was presented. It was not believed that any law was violated. The provision of the Constitution that 'The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, shall not be suspended unless when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it,' is equivalent to a provision---is a provision---that such privilege may be suspended when, in cases of rebellion, or invasion, the public safety does require it. It was decided that we have a case of rebellion, and that the public safety does require the qualified suspension of the privilege of the writ which was authorized to be made."

 

"There are no accidents in my philosophy. Every effect must have its cause. The past is the cause of the present, and the present will be the cause of the future. All these are links in the endless chain stretching from the finite to the infinite."

THOMAS 'STONEWALL' JACKSON

"If God be for us, who can be against us?"

“You may be whatever you resolve to be”

“Duty is ours; the consequences are God's.”

“Be content and resigned to God's will.”

“Arms is a profession that, if its principles are adhered to for success, requires an officer to do what he fears may be wrong, and yet, according to military experience, must be done, if success is to be attained.”


 

Sayings by Union Major General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain
(American Civil War 1861-1865)

We know not of the future, and cannot plan for it much. But we can hold our spirits and our bodies so pure and high, we may cherish such thoughts and such ideals, and dream such dreams of lofty purpose, that we can determine and know what manner of men we will be whenever and wherever the hour strikes, that calls to noble action.

The inspiration of a noble cause involving human interests wide and far, enables men to do things they did not dream themselves capable of before, and which they were not capable of alone. The consciousness of belonging, vitally, to something beyond individuality; of being part of a personality that reaches we know not where, in space and time, greatens the heart to the limit of the soul's ideal, and builds out the supreme of character.


There is a way of losing that is finding. When soul overmasters sense; when the noble and divine self overcomes the lower self; when duty and honor and love,—immortal things,—bid the mortal perish! It is only when a man supremely gives that he supremely finds.

Chamberlain speaking to veterans of the war
You are heroes. Heroism is latent in every human soul. That transcendence of self, has immortalized you.


I went, it was not long ago, to stand again upon that crest, which one day's crown of fire has passed into the blazin' coronet of fame.

In great deeds, something abides, on great fields, something stays, forms change and pass, bodies disappear, but spirits linger. This is the great reward of service, to give life's best for such high sake, that it shall be found again, until life eternal.


Brown Penny

I whispered, 'I am too young,'
And then, 'I am old enough';
Wherefore I threw a penny
To find out if I might love.
'Go and love, go and love, young man,
If the lady be young and fair.'
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
I am looped in the loops of her hair.
O love is the crooked thing,
There is nobody wise enough
To find out all that is in it,
For he would be thinking of love
Till the stars had run away
And the shadows eaten the moon.
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
One cannot begin it too soon.
--William Butler Yeats



RICHARD LOVELACE

To Lucasta, Going to the Wars

Tell me not, sweet, I am unkind,
That from the nunnery
Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind
To war and arms I fly.

True, a new mistress now I chase,
The first foe in the field;
And with a stronger faith embrace
A sword, a horse, a shield.

Yet this inconstancy is such
As you too shall adore;
I could not love thee, dear, so much,
Loved I not honour more.


To Althea, From Prison

When Love with unconfined wings
Hovers within my gates,
And my divine Althea brings
To whisper at the grates;
When I lie tangled in her hair,
And fettered to her eye,
The gods, that wanton in the air,
Know no such liberty.

When flowing cups run swiftly round
With no allaying Thames,
Our careless heads with roses bound,
Our hearts with loyal flames;
When thirsty grief in wine we steep,
When healths and draughts go free,
Fishes, that tipple in the deep,
Know no such liberty.

When, like committed linnets, I
With shriller throat shall sing
The sweetness, mercy, majesty,
And glories of my king;
When I shall voice aloud how good
He is, how great should be,
Enlarged winds, that curl the flood,
Know no such liberty.

Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage;
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for an hermitage;
If I have freedom in my love,
And in my soul am free,
Angels alone that soar above,
Enjoy such liberty.



Life..

Life can be good, Life can be bad
Life is mostly cheerful, But sometimes sad
Life can be dreams, Life can be great thoughts
Life can mean a person, sitting in court
Life can be dirty, Life can even be painful
But life is what you make it, So try to make it beautiful.
-L. Hughes

 

 

                    MEET JOE BLACK

Joe Black (Brad Pitt) is visiting the Jamaican lady (Lois Kelly-Miller) he saw earlier in the film who knows he is actually Death in human form. They begin to talk about the new feelings Death is having for Susan Parrish (Claire Forlani). The Jamaican Woman is sitting up in bed, hooked up to a monitor. She glances over at the doorway; Joe is standing there, observing her. An awkward silence, he looks at his flowers again, now sets them respectfully on the Jamaican woman's bed stand.

 

JAMAICAN WOMAN: Mistah Bad News. 'Bout time you show up.

 

Joe speaks to her in the dialect.

 

JOE: Don' be feisty, woman.

 

JAMAICAN WOMAN: None feisty, mistah. You come for me? Dat's good news.

 

JOE: No, I come to see Doctor.

 

JAMAICAN WOMAN: Doctor? What could be wrong wit' you?

 

JOE: Nothin'.

 

Silence, then the Jamaican Woman smiles.

 

JAMAICAN WOMAN: Oh, you come to see Doctor Lady?

 

JOE: Yeah man.

 

JAMAICAN WOMAN: My Doctor Lady?

 

JOE: Mine too you know.

 

She thinks about this for the moment, Joe grows uncomfortable.

 

JAMAICAN WOMAN: You in love?

 

JOE: (nods)

 

JAMAICAN WOMAN: You loved back?

 

JOE: I am.

 

JAMAICAN WOMAN: She knows you real self?

 

JOE: She knows how she feel.

 

JAMAICAN WOMAN: Backside! What the hell kind of business this is?

 

JOE: (irritably) Don' need you okayin'.

 

JAMAICAN WOMAN: Schoolboy tings is you head. Badness for you, badness for her, badness for me, lyin' here, tumour big as breadfruit, poisonin’ me inside an' waiting.

 

JOE: Brung you flowers and all I gettin' is aggravation.

 

JAMAICAN WOMAN: (stubbornly) Only flowers I wan' see's one's over my peaceful self restin' in the dirt.

 

JOE: Can do no right by people. Come to take, you wan' to stay, leave you stay, you wan' to go. Rahtid!

 

JAMAICAN WOMAN: You not in your right place, mistah.

 

Jamaican Woman's response stops Joe cold, he looks away and then back at her, she had clearly reached him.

 

JAMAICAN WOMAN (cont'd): Me neither. No more. Take me and you come wi' me now.

 

JOE: But I not lonely here. Somebody want me here.

 

Jamaican Woman considers Joe, she smiles sympathetically.

 

JAMAICAN WOMAN: It nice it happen to you. Like you come to the island and you had a holiday, sun didn't burn you red-red, just brown, you sleep and no mosquito eat you. But trut' is, it bound to happen, if you stay long enough. So take dat nice picture home wit' you, but don' be fooled. We lonely here mostly, too. If we lucky, maybe we got some nice pictures to take wit’ us

 

Jamaican Woman drifts into silence, her eyes and Joe's meet, a sense they understand each other. Jamaican Woman shifts, trying hard to ease her discomfort.

 

JOE: (gently) You got enough nice pictures?

 

She looks at him and nods gratefully and closes her eyes. Joe watches her, now his eyes close. Jamaican Woman exhales raspingly, falls still. The monitor flatlines. A beeping alarm sound somewhere down the hall.

 

Joe opens his eyes, takes a deep breath, he seems troubled.

 

JOE (cont'd): G'bye, sistah.

 

  LORD OF THE RINGS,

THE TWO TOWERS

FRODO: I can’t do this, Sam.

SAM: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened?

SAM: But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn’t. They kept going because they were holding on to something.

 

FRODO: What are we holding on to, Sam?

SAM: There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it’s worth fighting for.

(Standing in a corner, even Gollum seems moved. Faramir walks over and comes to kneel in front of Frodo)

FARAMIR: I think at last we understand one another, Frodo Baggins.

MADRIL: You know the laws of our country, the laws of your father. If you let them go, your life will be forfeit.

FARAMIR: Then it is forfeit. Release them.

 

  THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING

Frodo : I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf : So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.

 

 

The Hogfather

Death : Humans need fantasy to *be* human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.
Susan : With tooth fairies? Hogfathers?
Death : Yes. As practice, you have to start out learning to believe the little lies.
Susan : So we can believe the big ones?
Death : Yes. Justice, mercy, duty. That sort of thing.
Susan : They're not the same at all.
Death : You think so? Then take the universe and grind it down to the finest powder, and sieve it through the finest sieve, and then show me one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy. And yet, you try to act as if there is some ideal order in the world. As if there is some, some rightness in the universe, by which it may be judged.
Susan : But people have got to believe that, or what's the point?
Death : You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become?

Ending

Susan : Grandfather, why do you care?

 

Death : Human beings make life so interesting. Do you know that in a universe so full of wonders they have managed to invent boredom? Quite astonishing...

 

 

“The beauty of life is, while we cannot undo what is done, we can see it, understand it, learn from it and change so that every new moment is spent not in regret, guilt, fear or anger but in wisdom, understanding and love.”

Unknown


WHAT WE DO IN LIFE, ECHOES IN ETERNITY!


INACTION IS NOT THE MOTHER OF REDEMPTION.




'If I'm not a part of something, it's like nothing I do mean anything.'
"It doesn't."
'Doesn't what?'
"Mean anything. In the greater scheme or big picture, nothing we do matters. There's no grand plan, no big win."
'You seem kind of chipper about that.'
"Well, I guess I kind of....worked it out. If there's no great, glorious end to all this struggle and strife. If nothing we do matters....then all that matters is what we do. 'Cause that's all there is. What we do. NOW. TODAY. I fought for so long for redemption, for a reward....and finally just to beat the other guy, but...I never got it."
'And now you do?'
"Not all of it. All I want to do is help. I want to help because I don't think people should suffer...as they do. Because if there's no bigger meaning, then the smallest act of kindness....is the greatest thing in the world."

(EPIPHANY)


"A NATION THAT IS IGNORANT OF IT'S PAST, IS A NATION THAT IS RIPE FOR DECEPTION AND MANIPULATION; THEREFORE, IT IS NOT WHAT HAPPENED, BUT RATHER WHAT PEOPLE BELIEVED HAPPENED, WHICH DETERMINES THE PRESENT ACTIONS OF A NATION." Warriors of Honor, Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, Part 1 (2:24 mark)