Share the Desiderata

      Lately and more than ever I am asking the universe for some answers.  I mean really asking.  I do it on the way to work.  I ask my Ipod to send me a message.  I ask as I'm working.  I thing about it before I go to sleep.  When I wake up...it's my first question of the day.  I even asked while at church tonight...a church I have been starting to wonder about.  I know the universe was warning me but I was ignoring it.  I am listening...I swear.  Themes were big today.  I was fed a most delicious bowl of kale soup by my dear friend and support, Leigh Ann.  She feeds me on a daily basis with way more than just soup.  My sister was also a source of extreme encouragement.  It has been a rough road as siblings but now more than ever she is one of my biggest cheerleaders.  She answered specific questions today without prompt as if she had heard me ask them.  I also turned to Oprah tonight.  It was about rising up from the ashes.  I teared up when she explained that depression and sadness can make you so tired and weary.  Those are the two words I have been using for years.  Tired.  Weary.  I also dug through some papers in a pile today and found a copy of poem.  As a young kid I had written this very poem on the back of a notebook.  I would read it daily.  Sometimes more than once.  I didn't know from mantras or meditations back then.  I was just a kid and yet I was doing what all of the wise people tell me to do now as a grown woman.  As I read through it all of these lost years later I realized that so many of these themes became my own.  I planted seeds and then grew right around them.  I also think I forgot a few and need to get to work.  Either way I will be reading it daily yet again.  The universe heard me loud and clear on a day when things were dark and scary.  Thank you universe and all of you who help me on a daily basis to remember that there are many reasons to just keep going...

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.

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 is 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 with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.