Wishing

༺♥༻ Wishing ༺♥༻
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

 
Do you wish the world were better?
Let me tell you what to do.
Set a watch upon your actions,

Keep them always straight and true.
Rid your mind of selfish motives,
Let your thoughts be clean and high.
You can make a little Eden
Of the sphere you occupy.

Do you wish the world were wiser?
Well, suppose you make a start,
By accumulating wisdom
In the scrapbook of your heart;
Do not waste one page on folly;
Live to learn, and learn to live.
If you want to give men knowledge
You must get it, ere you give.

Do you wish the world were happy?
Then remember day by day
Just to scatter seeds of kindness
As you pass along the way,
For the pleasures of the many
May be ofttimes traced to one.
As the hand that plants an acorn
Shelters armies from the sun.

LIFE FASHIONED LIKE A GOWN????

 

Life

by Nan Terrell Reed They told me that Life could be just what I made it - Life could be fashioned and worn like a gown; I, the designer, mine the decision Whether to wear it with bonnet or crown. And so I selected the prettiest pattern - Life should be made of the rosiest hue - Something unique, and a bit out of fashion, One that perhaps would be chosen by few. But other folks came and they leaned o'er my shoulder; Someone questioned the ultimate cost; Somebody tangled the thread I was using; One day I found that my scissors were lost. And somebody claimed the material faded; Somebody said I'd be tired ere 'twas worn; Somebody's fingers, too pointed and spiteful, Snatched at the cloth, and I saw it was torn. Oh! somebody tried to do all the sewing, Wanting always to advise or condone. Here is my life, the product of many; Where is that gown I could fashion - alone?

I had first read this poem in the poetry book, The Best Loved Poems Of The American People when I was twenty years old. Little did I know how true the message was until many years later. The truth be told is that when we think we can do everything by ourselves, alone, without the help of the ONE who created us, that is when things can so easily go wrong.