After A While You Learn

After a while you learn
The subtle difference between
Holding a hand and chaining a soul
And you learn that love doesn’t mean possession
And company doesn’t mean security.
And you begin to learn that promises aren’t contracts
And presents aren’t promises and you begin to accept
Your defeats with your head up and your eyes ahead
With the grace of an adult not the grief of a child.
And you learn to build your roads today
Because tomorrow’s ground is too uncertain for plans
And futures have ways of falling down in mid-flight.
After awhile you learn that even sunshine
Burns if you get too much so you plant your
Own garden and decorate your own soul
Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.
And you learn that you really can endure
That you really are strong
And you really do have worth
And you learn
And you learn…

~© Veronica A. Schoffstall 1971~

The Journey~Mary Oliver

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug at your ankles.
Mend my life!
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations, though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.

~© Mary Oliver~

Words Of Wisdom

We cannot choose how many years we will live, but we can choose how much life those years will have. We cannot control the beauty of our face, but we can control the expression on it. We cannot control life's difficult moments but we can choose to make life less difficult. We cannot control the negative atmosphere of the world, but we can control the atmosphere of our minds. Too often we try to choose and control things we cannot. Too seldom we choose to control what we can …our attitude.

~© John Maxwell~

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud~William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils,
Beside the lake, beneath the trees
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: -
A poet could not but be gay
In such a jocund company:
I gazed -and gazed -but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought.

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills
And dances with the daffodils.

~© William Wordsworth~

e.e. cummings was a genius

now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened
===========================
it's so damn sweet when Anybody—
…makes you feel
…for once(imag
-ine) You
===========================
Almost anybody can learn to think or believe or know, but not a single human being can be taught to feel …
the moment you feel, you're nobody-but-yourself.
To be nobody-but-yourself-in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else— means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
===========================
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.
===========================
unlove's the heavenless hell and the homeless home

~All quotes listed are © e.e. cummings~