If you must say yes, say it with an open heart. If you must say no, say it without fear.
Advertisements
Tag: faith
On Love ~ Poem by Christina Rossetti
“Our heaven must be within ourselves,
Our home and heaven the work of faith
And thro’ this race of life which shelves
Downward to death.
While over all a dome must spread,
And love shall be that dome above;
And deep foundations must be laid,
And these are love.
—Christina Rossetti.”
The Madness of Love ~ Poem by Hadewijch of Antwerp
The Madness of love
The madness of love
Is a rich fief;
Anyone who recognized this
Would not ask Love for anything else:
It can unite Opposites
And reverse the paradox.
I am declaring the truth about this:
The madness of love makes bitter what was sweet,
It makes the stranger a kinsman,
And it makes the smallest the most proud.To souls who have not reached such love,
I give this good counsel:
If they cannot do more,
Let them beg Love for amnesty,
And serve with faith,
According to the counsel of noble Love,
And think: ‘It can happen,
Love’s power is so great!’
Only after his death
Is a man beyond cure.
A Community of the Spirit ~ Poem by Rumi
A Community of the Spirit
There is a community of the spirit.
Join it, and feel the delight
of walking in the noisy street
and being the noise.
Drink all your passion,
and be a disgrace.
Close both eyes
to see with the other eye.
Open your hands,
if you want to be held.
Sit down in the circle.
Quit acting like a wolf, and feel
the shepherd’s love filling you.
At night, your beloved wanders.
Don’t accept consolations.
Close your mouth against food.
Taste the lover’s mouth in yours.
You moan, “She left me.” “He left me.”
Twenty more will come.
Be empty of worrying.
Think of who created thought!
Why do you stay in prison
when the door is so wide open?
Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.
Live in silence.
Flow down and down in always
widening rings of being.
From Rumi
A Poem About Courage by Ralph Waldo Emerson
As the bird trims her to the gale,
I trim myself to the storm of time,
I man the rudder, reef the sail,
Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime;
“Lowly faithful, banish fear,
Right onward drive unharmed;
The port, well worth the cruise, is near,
And every wave is charmed.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Keep A-Goin’! Poem by Frank L. Stanton
KEEP A-GOIN’!
Some men fail and quit. Some succeed and quit. The wise refuse to quit, whether they fail or succeed.
Ef you strike a thorn or rose, Keep a-goin’!
Ef it hails, or ef it snows, Keep a-goin!
‘Taint no use to sit an’ whine,
When the fish ain’t on yer line; Bait yer hook an’ keep a-tryin’—
Keep a-goin’!
When the weather kills yer crop, Keep a-goin’!
When you tumble from the top, Keep a-goin’!
S’pose you’re out of every dime, Bein’ so ain’t any crime;
Tell the world you’re feelin’ prime—
Keep a-goin’!
When it looks like all is up, Keep a-goin’!
Drain the sweetness from the cup, Keep a-goin’!
See the wild birds on the wing, Hear the bells that sweetly ring, When you feel like sighin’ sing—
Keep a-goin’!Frank L. Stanton.
From “The Atlanta Constitution.”
“Just Be Glad” ~ Poem by James Whitcomb Riley
Just Be Glad
O heart of mine, we shouldn’t
Worry so!
What we’ve missed of calm we couldn’t
Have, you know!
What we’ve met of stormy pain,
And of sorrow’s driving rain,
We can better meet again,
If it blow!We have erred in that dark hour
We have known,
When our tears fell with the shower,
All alone!–
Were not shine and shower blent
As the gracious Master meant?–
Let us temper our content
With His own.For, we know, not every morrow
Can be sad;
So, forgetting all the sorrow
We have had,
Let us fold away our fears,
And put by our foolish tears,
And through all the coming years
Just be glad.
_James Whitcomb Riley._
