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12/19/2024

Robert Frost

12/19/2024

Mr. Rochester:
"Sometimes I have the strangest feeling about you. Especially when you are near me as you are now. It feels as though I had a string tied here under my left rib where my heart is, tightly knotted to you in a similar fashion. And when you go to Ireland, with all that distance between us, I am afraid that this cord will be snapped, and I shall bleed inwardly."

By Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
(Book: https://amzn.to/3GLcNkV)

12/19/2024

"I Wish I Could Remember That First Day"
By Christina Rossetti

I wish I could remember that first day,
First hour, first moment of your meeting me,
If bright or dim the season, it might be
Summer or Winter for aught I can say;
So unrecorded did it slip away,
So blind was I to see and to foresee,
So dull to mark the budding of my tree
That would not blossom yet for many a May.
If only I could recollect it, such
A day of days! I let it come and go
As traceless as a thaw of bygone snow;
It seemed to mean so little, meant so much;
If only now I could recall that touch,
First touch of hand in hand – Did one but know!

12/19/2024

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was an American philosopher, essayist, poet, and lecturer who played a pivotal role in the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Emerson was educated at Harvard University and later became a Unitarian minister. However, he gradually drifted away from organized religion and developed his own philosophical and spiritual beliefs.

Emerson's work is characterized by a focus on individualism, self-reliance, and the importance of nature. He believed that each person has a unique inner voice that should be heeded over societal expectations, and that nature is a source of spiritual and moral inspiration.

Some of Emerson's most notable works include:

• "Nature" (1836): In this essay, Emerson lays out his philosophy of nature as a source of spiritual and moral inspiration, and emphasizes the importance of individual experience and intuition.

• "Self-Reliance" (1841): This essay is perhaps Emerson's most famous work, and it extols the virtues of non-conformity, individualism, and self-reliance.

• "The American Scholar" (1837): This speech, delivered at Harvard University, outlines Emerson's vision of the ideal American scholar as someone who is self-reliant, curious, and independent-minded.

• "Essays: First and Second Series" (1841, 1844): These two volumes of essays contain some of Emerson's most famous works, including "Self-Reliance," "The Over-Soul," and "Circles."

• "Representative Men" (1850): In this book, Emerson profiles several famous historical figures, including Plato, Napoleon, and Shakespeare, and examines their character and achievements.

Emerson's ideas had a profound influence on American culture and thought, and his work continues to be studied and admired today.

• Ralph Waldo Emerson Collection: Collected Essays and Lectures: https://amzn.to/3M4hQkc)

12/19/2024

Lying, thinking
Last night
How to find my soul a home
Where water is not thirsty
And bread loaf is not stone
I came up with one thing
And I don’t believe I’m wrong
That nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

There are some millionaires
With money they can’t use
Their wives run round like banshees
Their children sing the blues
They’ve got expensive doctors
To cure their hearts of stone.
But nobody
No, nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Now if you listen closely
I’ll tell you what I know
Storm clouds are gathering
The wind is gonna blow
The race of man is suffering
And I can hear the moan,
’Cause nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

~Maya Angelou, Alone

12/19/2024

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society where none intrudes,
By the deep Sea, and music in its roar:
I love not Man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne'er express, yet cannot all conceal.

Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean--roll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;
Man marks the earth with ruin--his control
Stops with the shore;--upon the watery plain
The wrecks are all thy deed, nor doth remain
A shadow of man's ravage, save his own,
When for a moment, like a drop of rain,
He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan,
Without a grave, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown.

His steps are not upon thy paths,--thy fields
Are not a spoil for him,--thou dost arise
And shake him from thee; the vile strength he wields
For earth's destruction thou dost all despise,
Spurning him from thy bosom to the skies,
And send'st him, shivering in thy playful spray
And howling, to his gods, where haply lies
His petty hope in some near port or bay,
And dashest him again to earth: —there let him lay.

By Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

12/19/2024

“What I Have Lived For”

12/19/2024

“Life is a mirror: if you frown at it,
it frowns back; if you smile,
it returns the greeting.”

― William Makepeace Thackeray

12/19/2024

“The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge. Neither love without knowledge nor knowledge without love can produce a good life.”
― Bertrand Russell

12/19/2024

William Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud," often simply called "Daffodils," is a beloved lyric poem inspired by a real-life encounter with a field of these cheerful flowers on April 15, 1802. Wordsworth, walking with his sister Dorothy, was captivated by the sight of a "long belt" of daffodils along the shore of Ullswater in the English Lake District. This memorable experience sparked the creation of this 24-line poem, first published in 1807 and revised in 1815.

The poem "Daffodils" by William Wordsworth is a beautiful ode to nature and the power of memory. The speaker describes a moment of joy and wonder when they stumbled upon a vast field of golden daffodils fluttering beside a lake. The sight fills them with a sense of peace and happiness. Later, when they are feeling lonely or down, the memory of the daffodils returns, bringing with it a renewed sense of joy and contentment. The poem celebrates the restorative power of nature and the enduring nature of beautiful memories.

12/19/2024

"Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

— Harper Lee

12/19/2024

A Dream Within a Dream
By Edgar Allan Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow —
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand —
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep — while I weep!
O God! Can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

12/19/2024

12/19/2024

What does a truly restorative "day away" look like for you?
Is it a solitary retreat in nature, a bustling city adventure, or a quiet moment of mindfulness at home?

12/19/2024

There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. . . . Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face forever. Big Brother is watching you.

12/19/2024

Neil Gaiman in Coraline, underscores the deeper purpose of fairy tales beyond simple entertainment. It suggests that the value of these stories lies not in their fantastical elements—the existence of dragons or other mythical beings—but in the lessons they impart about courage, resilience, and hope.

The “dragons” in the quote symbolize the challenges, fears, or adversities we face in life. Fairy tales, through their narratives of heroes overcoming overwhelming odds, remind us that even the most daunting obstacles can be conquered. They inspire us to confront our own struggles with bravery and determination, offering a framework for imagining triumph over difficulties.

12/19/2024

All the world’s a stage by William Shakespeare