A Psalm of Life, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
What the Heart of the Young Man Said to the Psalmist
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
"Life is but an empty dream!"
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
"Dust thou art, to dust returnest,"
Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Finds us farther than to-day.
Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!
Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,--act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing
Learn to labor and to wait.
- I haven't been reading poetry much lately, nor writing. Hoping to return to these things.
Thursday, 21 July 2011
Sunday, 3 July 2011
Text from my mum
4 July 2011
I got this text from my mum this morning, as a talking text to my work phone, and as a text SMS message:
"Hello would u take a moment 2day & think of all the great things u have done over the last ten years & congratulate yourself"
This brings two things to mind: what a random, kinda impersonal text to get from my mum, and what does that mean?; and well, at face value, what if I did take a moment to think of all the things I have done over the last ten years.
Taking the second part of what the text bought to mind (will have a think about processing the first part), over the past ten years I:
- went to Switzerland twice (once for a whole year), visited Paris, Chicago, Edinburgh, London, Melbourne, Canberra and Fiji.
- finished Swiss high school, a bachelors degree and most of a masters degree
- moved out of my parents house, moved in with my sister, moved out to live with my boyfriend
- found my true love David, moved in with him, moved house and got engaged
- went through David getting diagnosed with cancer, getting operated, and then finding out that it may not have been that kind of cancer after all
- moved my work from my honours project into a career as a biostatitician/research assistant in child health and disability
- put on 10 kg, lost 9 kg, put on at least 18 kg, lost 15 kg (with Weight Watchers), worked for Weight Watchers (for a year and half), and put back on 35 kg
- been diagnosed with anxiety (generalised), depression, then depression and anxiety
- done CBT (twice), counselling and now ACT
- exercised daily, every two days, never, every two days, sometimes, never, every two days, and never (most recently)
- loved five men and one woman
- kept my best friend, made new friends and fell out of touch old ones, fell back in to touch with old ones
- had two people I'm close to have heart attacks the same year (one aged 25 and my poppy, aged 70)
- went to my first funeral, my first wedding, my first surprise wedding and the first first birth day party I can remember properly
- started drinking, stopped drinking, started drinking, stopped drinking and now can't drink any more
- learned to drive, was in my first car accident, learned to drive in traffic, got my first car and backed it into a tree (twice)
- lived through the 'war on terror', four elections, been addicted to news, stopped watching television, started using Facebook and Gmail, got my first mobile phone and my first smartphone, explained predictive text to my Nanna and Poppy and saw my parents learn how to use the internet
- learned to knit, stopped knitting, knitted more than 200 blanket squares, started knitting garments and have now knitted 15 pairs of socks, collected more than 50 kg of yarn
- lost my faith (twice), regained it a little, lost it again and started searching for a new one
- learned how to snap my fingers on my left hand, how to pack a suitcase with more stuff than can actually fit in to it (zip loc bags FTW), how to speak German, useful French and less useful Elvish, how to cook, how to use three different statistical programs, how to use a Mac, how to roll my r's, how to whistle and more uses for gaffer tape than I ever thought possible
- started, stopped and started a blog again
I got this text from my mum this morning, as a talking text to my work phone, and as a text SMS message:
"Hello would u take a moment 2day & think of all the great things u have done over the last ten years & congratulate yourself"
This brings two things to mind: what a random, kinda impersonal text to get from my mum, and what does that mean?; and well, at face value, what if I did take a moment to think of all the things I have done over the last ten years.
Taking the second part of what the text bought to mind (will have a think about processing the first part), over the past ten years I:
- went to Switzerland twice (once for a whole year), visited Paris, Chicago, Edinburgh, London, Melbourne, Canberra and Fiji.
- finished Swiss high school, a bachelors degree and most of a masters degree
- moved out of my parents house, moved in with my sister, moved out to live with my boyfriend
- found my true love David, moved in with him, moved house and got engaged
- went through David getting diagnosed with cancer, getting operated, and then finding out that it may not have been that kind of cancer after all
- moved my work from my honours project into a career as a biostatitician/research assistant in child health and disability
- put on 10 kg, lost 9 kg, put on at least 18 kg, lost 15 kg (with Weight Watchers), worked for Weight Watchers (for a year and half), and put back on 35 kg
- been diagnosed with anxiety (generalised), depression, then depression and anxiety
- done CBT (twice), counselling and now ACT
- exercised daily, every two days, never, every two days, sometimes, never, every two days, and never (most recently)
- loved five men and one woman
- kept my best friend, made new friends and fell out of touch old ones, fell back in to touch with old ones
- had two people I'm close to have heart attacks the same year (one aged 25 and my poppy, aged 70)
- went to my first funeral, my first wedding, my first surprise wedding and the first first birth day party I can remember properly
- started drinking, stopped drinking, started drinking, stopped drinking and now can't drink any more
- learned to drive, was in my first car accident, learned to drive in traffic, got my first car and backed it into a tree (twice)
- lived through the 'war on terror', four elections, been addicted to news, stopped watching television, started using Facebook and Gmail, got my first mobile phone and my first smartphone, explained predictive text to my Nanna and Poppy and saw my parents learn how to use the internet
- learned to knit, stopped knitting, knitted more than 200 blanket squares, started knitting garments and have now knitted 15 pairs of socks, collected more than 50 kg of yarn
- lost my faith (twice), regained it a little, lost it again and started searching for a new one
- learned how to snap my fingers on my left hand, how to pack a suitcase with more stuff than can actually fit in to it (zip loc bags FTW), how to speak German, useful French and less useful Elvish, how to cook, how to use three different statistical programs, how to use a Mac, how to roll my r's, how to whistle and more uses for gaffer tape than I ever thought possible
- started, stopped and started a blog again
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)