Words that inspires me in life
'Failure is not overnight- it's accumulated.. Just like degenerative diseases.
What we are today was the result of our yesterdays character.'
Leisure
by W. H. Davies
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?
No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:
No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
This one is close to my heart. Was dedicated to me by mentor, Bill. It was a time I was obsessive with my career and pursuing my goals. He keeps reminding.. “slow down, sweetie, take time for yourself. What you strive for, is nothing, if you lose yourself”. I have kept this reminder deep within me; a reminder that I am deserving of happiness, regardless of what comes my way. So thankyou Bill, I know you will always watch over me from above. Thank you, forever grateful for everything.
“I am taking time for myself now… and I’m enjoying every minute of it.”
The Invitation
By Oriah Mountain Dreamer
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.
I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, ‘Yes.’
It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.
It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.
Invictus
by William Ernest Henley.
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeoning of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Every time, my daughter and I recites this, we are overcome by the sheer intensity of its words. The spirit of mankind resonates through the words – such clarity on how we take on life and our determination to lift ourselves up each time we are down; and that no matter what the circumstances are, we can triumph because we are spiritual beings empowered with choice.
I trust you enjoy this poem, as it has inspired legends the likes of Nelson Mandela, Winston Churchill, and many more.
"When you want something you've never had, you have to do something you've never done"
To Risk
To laugh is to risk appearing a fool
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another is to risk involvement.
To place your ideas, your dreams before the crowd is to risk their loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To hope is to risk despair.
To try is to risk failure.
But risk must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing, has nothing, does nothing and is nothing.
He may avoid suffering and sorrow but he simply cannot learn, grow, feel, change, love and live.
~ Unknown ~
I Am That Which I Seek,
by Jenifer Shapiro
I am that which I seek.
I am the seer, the known and unknown.
The lover, the light, the bliss.
I am the unconditional one beyond judgment, scorn or criticism.
I am the whole Self, filled with the love of a thousand lives and the wisdom of the ages.
I am the water that shines, cleans, flows through and surrenders.
I am the earth that holds all of us upon it’s glorious strength.
I am the wind that carries the voice of God – sometimes as a prophet, often as a whisper.
I am the light of my soul and the connection to all souls.
I am the truth, for I have already lived the lies and won my freedom from them long ago.
Life' tragedy
Paul Laurence Dunbar
It may be misery not to sing at all,
And to go silent through the brimming day;
It may be misery never to be loved,
But deeper griefs than these beset the way.
To sing the perfect song,
And by a half-tone lost the key,
There the potent sorrow, there the grief,
The pale, sad staring of Life's Tragedy.
To have come near to the perfect love,
Not the hot passion of untempered youth,
But that which lies aside its vanity,
And gives, for thy trusting worship, truth.
This, this indeed is to be accursed,
For if we mortals love, or if we sing,
We count our joys not by what we have,
But by what kept us from that perfect thing.