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Serenity
There
are so many problems in life, and no one is totally immune to them.
 However,
when I am down there are certain things that calm me down and bring me
back to earth. One is the 'adagio in G Minor' by Albinoni, a piece of
music that never fails to bring me peace, though it is also one of the
saddest pieces of music I know. Another piece that I like is what
is playing with this page, Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu in C#-, Op.66. I
also like the 'music' of nature - birdsong, particularly the Skylark
and the Blackbird.
I recently found this
writing on the Internet which made me stop and think about music:
Music
is weird stuff. It is just sounds strung together, but it is everywhere
- in our homes, cars, shops and restaurants. People build careers in
music, popular songs sell in their millions, concerts are attended by
thousands, music is played at all sorts of ceremonies, there are radio
stations dedicated to playing music, television uses music during soaps,
quiz shows and adverts, and films use music to heighten dramas. It is
everywhere because we like music, we crave it, it is a powerful
phenomenon and it affects our moods. But what is music and why does it
affect us so?
Well
I didn't bother to read on - somehow I don't think the answer is all
that important. But just as music can sooth me or rouse me, so can
words. Below
are some pieces of writing that have the same effect. I have chosen a
variety of pieces of writing that all mean something to me. Either
scroll through and read them all, or click on the links to take you
directly to your chosen passage:
 Desiderata
by
Max Ehrmann
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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 to the dull and ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and
aggressive persons; they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare
yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there
will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your
achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career,
however humble, it's a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
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 as perennial
as the grass. Take kindly 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 dark
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 labors and aspirations, in the
noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham,
drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.
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The
23rd Psalm
The Lord is my
Shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the 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 will 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 runneth over.
Surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
(The
Psalms were written by King
David)
Footprints
One
night a man had a dream,
He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the LORD.
Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.
For each scene,
he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand;
One belonged to him,
and the other to the LORD.
When the last scene of his life flashed before him,
he looked back at the footprints in the sand.
He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one
set of footprints.
He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and
saddest times in his life.
This really bothered him and he questioned the LORD about it.
"LORD, you said that once I decided to follow you,
you'd walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life,
there is only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why when I needed you most you would leave me."
The LORD replied, "My precious, precious child,
I love you and I would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering,
when you see only one set of footprints it was then that I carried
you."
by
Margaret Fishback Power
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
Thoughts
for a
New Year
The following
piece of prose I found on a website (http://www.larynxlink.com/Library/Laryngectomee/newyear.htm) I
have altered it slightly because it referred to a particular year and
I felt it applies to all years. It was written by the Rev. Jess Hunt
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As we go into the
New Year we have 365 days to account for (trusting
you go all the way). But there are two days we should not worry about:
The first one is
Yesterday, as we look back on the Old Year, it is gone, past, can't
bring it back, gone forever, what did you do with it? Do you have any
regrets of its passing?
The other day is
Tomorrow, with its possibilities, worries, and burdens. Tomorrow is
beyond our control. But what do you really expect to happen in the year
yet to come? Tomorrow's sun will no doubt rise, maybe behind a cloud or
hidden from our view by a dense fog, but there isn't anything we can do
about that, so why worry.
So that leaves us
with Today. What are we doing with Today? Surely we can cope with the
problems and burdens or blessings for one day at a time. It is only when
we add the problems, trials, sufferings, disappointments and failure of
Yesterday to the worries of Tomorrow that we break down under the load. So don't add the worries of Tomorrow
and the mistakes of Yesterday to the problems of Today.
This would be a
good time to make a New Years Resolution that we are going to be happy,
pleasant, cheerful and kind to others; regardless of our past
experiences. Don't let the grief of Yesterday, and the fear of Tomorrow
deprive you of the pleasure of Today. For Today is the day we looked
forward to Yesterday with greater hope than Yesterday offered us. What
are you doing with Today? Are you using it wisely?
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Shakespeare has
written some truly wonderful words - I could fill a large number of web
pages with favourite bits. However, here is an all time favourite:
Sonnet
XVIII
Shall I
compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.
Although I am not a practicing
Christian I do like a lot of the Bible. The King James version is poetic
in the use of words, but for reading I like the New English Bible. Here
is a passage taken from the King James where the words have a power that
allows them to stand alone:
Ecclesiastes
Chapter 3, Verses
1 to 8
| 1 |
To
every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose
under the heaven: |
| 2 |
a
time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to
pluck up that which is planted; |
| 3 |
a
time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time
to build up; |
| 4 |
a
time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to
dance; |
| 5 |
a
time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a
time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; |
| 6 |
a
time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to
cast away; |
| 7 |
a
time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a
time to speak; |
| 8 |
a
time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of
peace. |
For many years one of my favourite pieces
of text has been 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' by John Donne. When looking
it up I found that correctly it is called "Devotions upon Emergent
Occasions" (1623), XVII: Nunc Lento Sonitu Dicunt, Morieris -
"Now, this bell tolling softly for another, says to me: Thou must
die." Donne wrote this piece following the sickness and death of a
neighbour. I prefer, however to call it by it's alternative name:
No
Man is an Island
I
have included the whole piece for interest, but highlighted the parts
that have the most meaning for me (the most famous are quite a way
through the piece). It speaks to me of the importance of the unity of
Mankind (no sexism intended but I do find Humankind a less pleasing
term):
PERCHANCE he for whom
this bell tolls may be so ill, as that he knows not it tolls for
him; and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am,
as that they who are about me, and see my state, may have caused
it to toll for me, and I know not that.
The church is Catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all
that she does belongs to all.
When she baptizes a child, that action concerns me; for that
child is thereby connected to that body which is my head too,
and ingrafted into that body whereof I am a member.
And when she buries a man, that action concerns me: all
mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies,
one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a
better language; and every chapter must be so translated;
God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by
age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God's
hand is in every translation, and his hand shall bind up all our
scattered leaves again for that library where every book shall
lie open to one another.
As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon calls not upon the
preacher only, but upon the congregation to come, so this bell
calls us all; but how much more me, who am brought so near the
door by this sickness.
There was a contention as far as a suit (in which both piety and
dignity, religion and estimation, were mingled), which of the
religious orders should ring to prayers first in the morning;
and it was determined, that they should ring first that rose
earliest.
If we understand aright the dignity of this bell that tolls for
our evening prayer, we would be glad to make it ours by rising
early, in that application, that it might be ours as well as
his, whose indeed it is.
The bell doth toll for him that thinks it doth; and though it
intermit again, yet from that minute that this occasion wrought
upon him, he is united to God.
Who casts not up his eye to the sun when it rises? but who takes
off his eye from a comet when that breaks out? Who bends not his
ear to any bell which upon any occasion rings? but who can
remove it from that bell which is passing a piece of himself out
of this world? No
man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the
continent, a part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well
as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's
or of thine own were: any
man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and
therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls
for thee.
Neither can we call this a begging of misery, or a borrowing of
misery, as though we were not miserable enough of ourselves, but
must fetch in more from the next house, in taking upon us the
misery of our neighbours.
Truly it were an excusable covetousness if we did, for
affliction is a treasure, and scarce any man hath enough of it.
No man hath affliction enough that is not matured and ripened by
it, and made fit for God by that affliction.
If a man carry treasure in bullion, or in a wedge of gold, and
have none coined into current money, his treasure will not
defray him as he travels.
Tribulation is treasure in the nature of it, but it is not
current money in the use of it, except we get nearer and nearer
our home, heaven, by it.
Another man may be sick too, and sick to death, and this
affliction may lie in his bowels, as gold in a mine, and be of
no use to him; but this bell, that tells me of his affliction,
digs out and applies that gold to me: if by this consideration
of another's danger I take mine own into contemplation, and so
secure myself, by making my recourse to my God, who is our only
security.
John Donne |
Blowing
in the Wind
There
are not many inspirational 'pop' songs, but certainly this would be
there amongst my chosen few. So many have sung this song in the years
since it was first written - such a pity that more people with the power
to do something about it have not made an effort to listen to the words.
How
many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before they're forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
How many years can a mountain exist
Before it's washed to the sea?
Yes, 'n' how many years can some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free?
Yes, 'n' how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn't see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
Bob
Dylan, 1963
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