Prayer

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve, I was made weak, that I might humbly obey. I asked for health, that I might do greater things, I was given infirmity, that I might do better things. I asked for riches, that I might be happy, I was given poverty, that I might be wise. I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men, I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God. I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life, I was given life, that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I had hoped for. Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered. I am among all men, most richly blessed.

Just One

One song can spark a moment,One flower can wake the dream. One tree can start a forest, One bird can herald spring. One smile begins a friendship, One handclasp lifts a soul. One star can guide a ship at sea, One word can frame the goal, One vote can change a nation, One sunbeam lights a roomOne candle wipes out darkness, One laugh will conquer gloom. One step must start each journey. One word must start each prayer. One hope will raise our spirits, One touch can show you care. One voice can speak with wisdom, One heart can know what's true, One life can make a difference.........You see, it's up to you!

Courage

It is in the small things we see it.The child's first step, as awesome as an earthquake. The first time you rode a bike, wallowing up the sidewalk.The first spanking when your heartwent on a journey all alone.When they called you crybaby or poor or fatty or crazy and made you into an alien, you drank their acid and concealed it. Later, if you faced the death of bombs and bullets you did not do it with a banner, you did it with only a hat to cover your heart.You did not fondle the weakness inside you though it was there.Your courage was a small coal that you kept swallowing. If your buddy saved you and died himself in so doing, then his courage was not courage, it was love; love as simple as shaving soap. Later, if you have endured a great despair, then you did it alone, getting a transfusion from the fire, picking the scabs off your heart, then wringing it out like a sock. Next, my kinsman, you powdered your sorrow, you gave it a back rub and then you covered it with a blanket and after it had slept a whileit woke to the wings of the roses and was transformed. Later, when you face old age and its natural conclusion your courage will still be shown in the little ways, each spring will be a sword you'll sharpen, those you love will live in a fever of love, and you'll bargain with the calendar and at the last moment when death opens the back door you'll put on your carpet slippersand stride out.

I didn't speak

In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.

Peace......

If there is righteousness in the heart, there will be beauty in the character. If there is beauty in the character, there will be harmony in the home. If there is harmony in the home, there will be order in the nation. If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world....

Don't Quit

When things go wrong as they sometimes will; When the road you're trudging seems all uphill; When the funds are low, and the debts are high And you want to smile, but have to sigh; When care is pressing you down a bit-Rest if you must, but do not quit. Success is failure turned inside out; The silver tint of the clouds of doubt; And you can never tell how close you are. It may be near when it seems so far; So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit- It's when things go wrong that you must not quit.

Psalm 23

The Lord is my Shepherd

I shall not want. He maketh me lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness For His name sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I fear no evil For Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou annointest my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.

It's Majesty

I thought I was going to sneak away tonight. What a glorious night. Every face I see is a memory. It may not be a perfectly perfect memory. Sometimes we have our ups and downs. But we're all together when we open these magnificent Chapters, And you're mine for the night. I'm going to break precedent and tell you about this Book. About the boundless voices in this master piece. That you will have a life as lucky as these words, Where you can wake up one morning and say, "I don't want anything more." ...So much Poetry. Don't they go by in a blink....?

Lucid

For this, For that, For not, Wretched man doth live from this day to that Without meaning, Without Purpose. My mother always taught me that I should eat Fish from the bowl. She taught me well. This was the way…… But now I eat fish from the can…. Apparently this is the way now. We live in this world never knowing what to grasp, Or what to let go. We forget our dreams. The past has become a mirage And the future bleak and hopeless, Filled with insatiable uncertainties. But we will forge on. We will survive And we will spread like viruses For this is the way of man.

A Dying Era

Anybody knows what this world is?.......... This is the maze of forests we call “Life”. This is where the Battle for existence is fought. This is where the armaments are forged. Thousands upon thousands of unspoken words Died right here on this field, Fighting the same fight that we're still fighting amongst Ourselves today. These green fields right here were painted red, bubbling With the blood of muffled voices, Smoke and burning fire poured right through their mouths. Listen to their souls, men: 'I killed the life of the silenced with malice in my heart. Hatred destroyed their essence.' You listen. And you take a lesson from the dead. If we don't come together, right now, on this hallowed ground, We too will be destroyed -- just like they were. I don't care if we like each other or not. But we will respect each other. We will protect the essence. We will speak for the voices. And maybe -- I don't know -- maybe we'll learn to speak these Words like men.

What's the significance of life? Who are we?

Insignificant mortals, who are as leaves are, and now flourish and grow warm with life, and feed on what the ground gives, but then again fade away and are dead. What's the significance of life? Who are we? Is human life just a dream, from which we never really awake, as some great thinkers claim? Are we submerged by our feelings, by our loves and hates, by our ideas of good, bad, beautiful, awful? Are we incapable of knowing beyond those ideas and feelings? Listen to Shakespeare and Joseph Conrad: “We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep…” William Shakespeare “A man that is born falls into a dream like a man who falls into the sea.” Joseph Conrad. Is the reality we know a reality imposed to us by nature? Is the reality and the meaning of life a creation of men, such as music, or love or colors (science tells us that there isn't such things as music, harmony or colors in the physic world. Just traveling molecules: There is not, external to us, hot or cold, but only different velocities of molecules; there aren’t sounds, callings, harmonies, but just variations in the pressure of the air; there aren’t colours, or light, just electro-magnetic waves, said H. Von Foerster.).Are we - and all living beings - just survival machines, blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes, Are we incapable of knowing beyond the frames imposed to us by nature? Is there any significance for life in a Universe of billions of stars that ignore us? Is there any significance for life in an Universe whose dimensions and nature overcome our understanding?

Listen to the words of Pascal, in the seventeenth century:

“When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity that lies before and after it, when I consider the little space I fill and I see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces of which I am ignorant, and which know me not, I rest frightened, and astonished, for there is no reason why I should be here rather than there. Why now rather than then? Who has put me here? By whose order and direction have this place and time been ascribed to me?”

It’s easy to save a person that doesn’t realize he needs saving……… I know, it sounds ironical and a bit contradictory, but not when you compare it to a person who needs saving, knows that he needs saving, knows what he needs to do to get saved, hates the fact that he is not saved but at the same time, cannot be saved. Not by what he knows or what others know for that matter…… It’s mind boggling, I know. It has to be. It’s a funny world we live in. We wake up and find new responsibilities to undertake. We move in motions only the cognitive mind can comprehend and yet in all that we do, we are oblivious of the stubs and pains that devour our hearts, our very existence. I have been told, time and again my feelings border between the line of true feeling and perfect insanity. Apparently I consider that fine line does not exist any more. I walk among my fellow creatures in disguise. I bring laughter to their otherwise miserable worlds but my laughter appears only on my outer being. In my subconscious, I need redemption from the solitude, from the constant heart wrenching thoughts of the ones who always want to come to my aid but find my doors barricaded with past experiences and the fear of trying again. We live in a man-eat-man society, or so I’ve been told….. It may be true and it may also be true that man can eat his own man……. It sounds confusing I know, but that’s how it’s meant to be. That’s the way it always is. Maybe one day I will have a story of my own. Maybe one day I will conquer my man but until then, I still require recovery. That is my story.