Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant,
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.

Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all
aridity and disenchantment, it is perennial as the grass.

Take kindly to the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit
to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labours and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.

Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann c.1920.

Tales of the heart

Prologue: Once upon a time, not so very long ago, (see wedding video)
Stood on a hilltop under a bright quilt of shining stars

three wishes on a shooting star:
Remember your roots, remember where you come from
Live well in the present
Look forward to the future.
Messages from the heart:
Tales to help you along your path.

Part One: Looking backward at moments in time
Part Two: Looking forward and beyond

In Some Small Way

There's a tree, standing there
In such an ordinary way
But as I look around,
Everything keeps changing.

There's a leaf on that tree
And it floats into a stream
Like everything, it gets carried away
To the sea.

And if we give a little of our love away
Maybe meet in the middle every night and day
If we could hear just a whistper of what the heart needs to say
It could sure make a difference in some small
In some small way.

In the heart lies the key,
That unlocks your destiny
Look within and we'll find,
Everything we're longing for.

And if we give a little of love away
Maybe meet in the middle every night, every day
If we could hear just a whisper of what the heart needs to say
It could sure make a difference in some small
In some small way.

Oh may you cherish each moment you live
And know all the love that you give will go on, and on and on.

There's a sky, vast and blue
And it lies deep inside of you
Breathe it in, let it out,
Breath it in again.

And if we give a little of love away
Maybe meet in the middle every night, every day,
If we could hear just a whisper of what the heart's trying to say
It could sure make a difference in some smalll
In some small way.

Song by Celine Dion. Lyrics by David Tyson & Richard Page.

A Prayer for my Daughter

Once more the storm is howling, and half hid
Under this cradle-hood and coverlid
My child sleeps on. There is no obstacle
But Gregory's wood and one bare hill
Whereby the haystack - and roof-levelling wind.
Bred on the Atlantic, can be stayed;
And for an hour I have walked and prayed
Because of the great gloom that is in my mind.

I have walked and prayed for this young child an hour
And heard the sea-wind scream upon the tower,
And under the arches of the bridge, and scream
In the elms above the flooded stream;
Imagining in excited reverie
That the future years had come,
Dancing to a frenzied drum,
Out of the murderous innocence of the sea.

May she be granted beauty and yet not
Beauty to make a stranger's eye distraught,
Or hers before a looking-glass, for such,
Being made beautiful overmuch,
Consider beauty a sufficient end,
Lose natural kindness and maybe
The heart-revealing intimacy
That chooses right, and never find a friend.

Helen being chosen found life flat and dull
And later had much trouble from a fool,
While that great Queen, that rose out of the spray,
Being fatherless could have her way
Yet chose a bandy-legged smith for a man.
It's certain that fine women eat
A crazy salad with their meat
Whereby the Horn of plenty is undone.

In courtesy I'd have her chiefly learned;
Hearts are not had as a gift but hearts are earned
By those that are not entirely beautiful;
Yet many, that have played the fool
For beauty's very self, has charm made wise.
And many a poor man that has roved,
Loved and thought himself beloved,
From a glad kindness cannot take his eyes.

May she become a flourishing hidden tree
That all her thoughts may like the linnet be,
And have no business but dispensing round
Their magnanimities of sound,
Nor but in merriment begin a chase,
Nor but in merriment a quarrel.
O may she live like some green laurel
Rooted in one dear perpetual place.

My mind, because the minds that I have loved,
The sort of beauty that I have approved,
Prosper but little, has dried up of late,
Yet knows that to be choked with hate
May well be of all evil chances chief.
If there's no hatred in a mind
Assault and battery of the wind
Can never tear the linnet from the leaf.

An intellectual hatred is the worse,
So let her think opinions are accursed.
Have I not seen the loveliest woman born
Out of the mouth of plenty's horn,
Because of her opinionated mind
Barter that horn and every good
By quiet natures understood
For an old bellows full of angry wind?

Considering that, all hatred driven hence,
The soul recovers radical innocence
And learns at last that it is self-delighting,
Self-appeasing, self-affrighting,
And that its own sweeet will is Heaven's will;
She can, though every face should scowl
And every windy quarter howl
Or every bellows burst, be happy Still.

And may her bridegroom bring her to a house
Where all's accustomed, ceremonious;
For arrogance and hatred are the wares
Peddled in the thoroughfares.
How but in custom and in ceremony
Are innocence and beauty born?
Ceremony's a name for the rich born,
And custom for the spreading laurel tree.

William Butler Yeats

THEMES

Guarantees - There's only one.
The Art of Motivation
Problem-Solving - the heart of the matter.
Expectations: Highs, Lows and then there's Reality.
The beauty of Risk
Change - the inevitability of it all
Perspectives and perceptions and beliefs
Structure, planning and self-discipline
Fragility of Intention and the Power of Action
Adversity - the great role model.
Perfectionism - the devil on your left shoulder
Goals, Quests, Directions and Bucket Lists
Balance - the great uniter
Intuitions and gut feelings.
Knowledge and Know-how
Look, Listen and Learn
Keep it real, keep it going.
Optimism or pessimism and what is real
Patience - the ?th virtue
Procrastination - the ?th evil
Self-knowledge, understanding of self
Potentials and possibilities
Take five: the art of decisiveness and self-debate
Impulsivity vs Spontaneity
Choices: Crossroads and forks in the road.

The ABC's of Life Lessons
A: Adversity - life events that build character, the power of Action
B: Beliefs - created by you based on your vision and attitude to the world, balance
C: Changes that are inevitable, bound up in choices
D: Dreams to be fulfilled
E: Expectations - keep them real
F: Forgiveness
G: Goals are the pistons of life, no gaurantees
H: Happiness - uniquely stated by yourself
I: Inquisitiveness, Investigation, Intuition, Intent
J: Judgement - the pros and cons
K: Knowledge
L: Love with abandon, Laugh with impunity, Learn at every opportunity
M: Motivation is the key to unfolding your dreams and succeeding at goals
N: Nurture compassion and empathy
O: Opportunities to discover, learn from
P: Problem-solving, patience, persistence, perceptions, perspectives, pacing
Q: Quiessence and quiet
R: Relax, remember, reward, rejuvenate, risk
S: Success, Surrender, Socialize
T: Truth, Trust, Try,
U: Understanding
V: Values
W: Wellbeing, wonder
X: marks the spot at the fork of your road
Y: one of the five questions you should always be asking: Why, What, When, Where and Who?
Z: zeal and zest for living

Index

Chapter One Beginnings

Regrets, I've had a few.

Down memory lane - yours, mine and theirs.

Remember when...?

Things other people have said much better than I could ever do

Thoughts about food :Recipes - traditional, grannies best, and new

Food for thought: Kierkegaard, Addison, Emerson, Fromm, Nietzche,

Your father: a heart as big as the universe

Messages from your grandmothers hearts

Listening to your aunts

Contributions from your uncles.

Games, play, and childhood dreams.

Poems that say it all

Songs from the heart

Books to curl up with

Stories that need to be told

Stars to shoot for : goals, quests and bucket lists

Now is the time! (live in the moment)

Thoughts and wishes.

Perspectives and Angles

Life Lessons to Learn and remember.

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you

But make allowance for their doubting too,

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master,

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breath a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much,

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Rudyard Kipling