This site is dedicated to my dear wife Mary Louise who passed away about two years ago. Mary was a survivor who found herself in many tough circumstances and bravely overcame them. Even though she was struck by illness, she confronted her stresses in ways that deepened her life and kept her going with grace and courage. She took each day as it came, full of sorrow, joy and disappointment and accepted small victories.
Through these experiences and being with her and for her, I learned that no matter where you are at, whether it is at a wound care clinic with tens of diabetic patients in the waiting room, or a dentist office, or a hospital room or watching a sunset, by just being still and quiet, and yet awake and aware of the moments and reconnecting on an inner level to whom you are and in outer level in a loving and caring way, the whole material world of space and time become an eternal continuum of now.
By choosing love for my salvation, I found that I was able to cultivate and refine myself and hold the importance of self hood in check by committing to love. Those were the best moments of my life, the most delicious awakening of this higher power.
Even though she is gone the earth, the earth still spins, the summer still fades through fall to winter. The birds still mate and nest and the electrons still revolve around the atoms. They also said "they' never put a man on mars". The same game of monopoly we have all been playing minus one. She lives in my heart and her spirit lives in a picture frame. As memories of her grow dim, I remember the most important thing, I loved her.
There was a time you let me know. What's real and going on below, but now you never show it to me, do you? And remember when I moved in you, the holy dove was moving too. And every breath we drew was Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah Maybe there's a God above. And all I ever learned from love. Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you It's not a cry you can hear at night. It's not somebody who's seen the light, it's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah I did my best, it wasn't much. I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch. I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you And even though. it all went wrong, I'll stand before the Lord of Song. With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah performed by Patricia O'CallaghanHallelujah Jeff Buckley -lyrics
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded. Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed. Everybody knows that the war is over. Everybody knows the good guys lost. Everybody knows the fight was fixed. The poor stay poor, the rich get rich. That's how it goes. Everybody knows. Everybody knows that the boat is leaking. Everybody knows that the captain lied. Take one last look at this Sacred Heart Before it blows. LEONARD COHEN
Yasmin Levi - La Alegria "Happiness". Damned be the world, I live to pay for the sin of loving you. I leave you forever, my love But don't forget that I exist only for you And I give you the song of my life as a present Forever... until I die
When you came my way You brightened every day With your sweet smile. Did somebody say that A love like that won't last? Didn't I give you All that I've got to give baby? Sade - No Ordinary Love
As long as this world Keeps on spinnin around I'll keep hangin on to this love that I found. I won't let go, cause I know I have something that is true And I will never ever quit loving you, Jill Barber Oh My MyChances
I have loved in life and I have been loved. I have drunk the bowl of poison from the hands of love as nectar, and have been raised above life's joy and sorrow. My heart, aflame in love, My heart has been rent and joined again; My heart has been broken and again made whole; My heart has been wounded and healed again; A thousand deaths my heart has died, and thanks be to love, it lives yet. I went through hell and saw there love's raging fire, and I entered heaven illumined with the light of love. I wept in love; I mourned in love; And when my fiery glance fell on the rocks, the rocks burst forth as volcanoes. The whole world sank in the flood caused by my one tear; With my deep sigh the earth trembled, and when I cried aloud the name of my beloved, I shook the throne of God in heaven. I bowed my head low in humility, and on my knees I begged of love, "Disclose to me, I pray thee, O love, thy secret." She took me gently by my arms and lifted me above the earth, and spoke softly in my ear, "My dear one, thou thyself art love, art lover, and thyself art the beloved whom thou hast adored." Inayat Khan
"Little one, dear wife. Blossom of orange".The names he called me at his last coming. All this will happen,I promise you this. Hold back your fears-I with secure faith wait for him. Madama Butterfly -Giacomo Puccini
When will I love you? Good Lord, I don't know, Maybe never, maybe tomorrow. But not today, that's for sure. Love is a rebellious bird that nobody can tame, and you call him quite in vain if it suits him not to come. Nothing helps, neither threat nor prayer. One man talks well, the other keeps silent. Love is a gypsy child, it has never, ever, known law; if you love me not, then I love you; if I love you, you'd best beware. The Habanera aria from the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet
Stars shining bright above you, Night breezes seem to whisper "I love you", Birds singing in the sycamore tree, Dream a little dream of me, Ella Fitzgerald - Louis Armstrong
Dance Me To The End Of Love Leonard Cohen (Madeleine Peyroux) Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin, Dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in, Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove, Dance me to the end of love, Oh let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone, Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon, Show me slowly what I only know the limits of, Dance me to the end of love, Dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on, Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long , Dance me to the children who are asking to be born, Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn, Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn, Dance me to the end of love, Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin , Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in , Touch me with your naked hand or touch me with your glove, Dance me to the end of love.
How an old man gains the knowledge, and the courage, to elevate himself from "Temo" to "Te Amo" - from the clutches of fear to the balm of love. Intimidated by the difference in social status of the woman he loved, this is the frustrated love story, a "what if?" tale of missed opportunities. Throughout these narrative turns, the film oscillates between the past and the present, as he strain to peer through the mists of time for answers that aren't opaque. Looking back at periods from past as one would at faded photographs : "I don't recognize myself. Who am I?" 'I was another person." The Secret in Their Eyes
film "La cavalcade des heures" 1943 - lyrics with literal translation to English: Tonight, the wind that knocks at my door, tells me about love relationships that died In front of the fire which dies down Tonight, it is an autumn song In the house that shivers And I think of the remote days. What remains of our love relationships? What remains of those beautiful days? A picture, old picture of my youth What remains of the love letters? The months of April, the rendezvous? A memory that haunts me without cease. Withered happiness, hairs in the wind, Stolen kisses, drifting dreams What remains of all that Tell me? A small village, an old belfry, A landscape so well hidden And in a cloud the dear visage of my past. The words, the tender words that one is whispering The most pure caresses The oaths in the deepness of the woods The flowers that one finds back in a book whose perfume inebriates you, why did they fly away?
"Heraclitus, you know, says that everything moves on and that nothing is at rest; and, comparing existing things to the flow of a river, he says that you could not step into the same river twice" (Cratylus 402A).
"I hold that when a person dies, his Soul returns again to earth;
Arrayed in some new flesh-disguise, another mother gives him birth.
With sturdier limbs and brighter brain, the old soul takes the road again."
Little bird, I dream of you little bird. And I, your young lover, what can I do? Was I not defeated by the lack of fortune? Malaika by Angelique KidjoZelie Afia
There is no end to this story, No final tragedy or glory, Love came here and never left, Now that my heart is open, It can't be closed or broken, Love came here and never left. Now I'll have to live with loving you forever, Although our days of living life together are over. Lhasa de Sela - Love Came Here
Where do you go when your tides get low? I go far from here where the silence sleeps In the very deeps of the holy blue. And I dream of you. And your eyes fall rain from pain from pain. I say never again. I skate like a bird. Drunk on a word. Almost in love. If I only knew. But the best will drive through me and you. Me and you.
Strange things are happening everyday, I hear the music up above my head. Though the sight of my heart has left me again, I hear music up above. Secrets are written in the sky, Looks like I've lost the love I've never found. Though the sound of hope has left me again, I hear music up above. "Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us"Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
I got caught in a storm, and carried away. I got turned, turned around, I got caught in a storm, That's what happened to me. So I didn't call. And you didn't see me for a while. I was caught in a storm. Things were flying around , and doors were slamming, and windows were breaking, and I couldn't hear what you were saying. I was rising up, hitting the ground, and breaking and breaking, , Rising up, Rising up (Lhasa de Sela)
You told me that you'd stay with me, and shelter me forever. That was a hard promise to keep. I can't blame you for the bad weather. After all that has been said and done I won't ask you where you're going. Don't keep in touch, I don't miss you much except sometimes early in the morning. Now use your silver tongue once more, there's one thing that I'd like to know. Did you ever believe the lies that you told? Did you earn the fool's gold that you gave me?
I had a dream last night: A fish on land gasping for breath. Just laughed and sang this song: Is life like this for everyone? I picked him up. He had a human face. I carried him to where the water was a grey and still and dusty thing. I dropped him in and he could breathe again. And then he grew, and he became a man.
Where were you when I was burned and broken while the days slipped by from my window watching? Where were you when I was hurt and helpless because the things you say and the things you do surround me while you were hanging yourself on someone else's words? Dying to believe in what you heard. I was staring straight into the shining sun lost in thought and lost in time while the seeds of life and the seeds of change were planted. I took a heavenly ride through our silence I knew the moment had arrived for killing the past and coming back to life. Pink Floyd
With fierce sensitivity, Evelyn Lau explores, the landscape of loss, mortality and the weight of personal history in her latest poetry collection, Living Under Plastic. The narrators of these poems witness the decline or disappearance of confidants, and bear the random pull of memory’s slipstream. In verses that reflect on death, heritage, emotional and physical environments, frailties of the body, and the malaise lurking beneath the surface of everyday life she examines the links between past and present, setting and sentiment.
“At the hospital I was the one/trying to tether you to your life, the tubes that snaked in and out of your body/were like monstrous vines from a nightmare,/lashing you to the earth."
Though steadied by sombre resolve in the midst of grief, their lives are not without psychological consequences. Life is scattered with conduits to the past, and these clear-eyed observers struggle repeatedly with anxieties and recollections.
"How should we carry our pasts/with us-as a husk rattling in a corner of a box/tucked away, or as a tipped bottle of poison/that pours through our remaining days?" Book review by David Chau
I used to complain calling our separation unfair. I used to be in rage with this unjust universe but when I saw you as only a part of me with that vision I went soundly to sleep. Jalaloddin Rumi
I've found a home. Now will life begin. I can wait another year or two but not one moment more. Is anything wrong?
Joan Baez - All My Trials. I've got a little book that was given to me, And every page spells liberty, All my trials, Lord, soon be over. The underlying message - this too shall pass; that no matter how bleak the situation seemed, the struggle would soon be over.
Shall We Gather at the River, Ere we reach the shining river, Lay we every burden down, Praise our spirits will deliver, And provide our robe and crown. Soon we'll reach the shining river, Soon our pilgimage will cease, Soon our happy hearts will quiver, With the melody of peace.
There was a time when the sunshine played in your soft blonde hair, reflected in your golden eyes. You lean back your head, and you laugh about tomorrow. And then it came like a new day, the sun in the sky high beam, water sparkled down the stream.
We knew this would all go away, but not today. And when it did, you are better, better than the day you were born. Not quite so perfectly formed. The only wish I had that day: that it would stay. down by the stream, in the mountains, I promised you faithfully, that I would never leave, if and when I went away I'd still protect you, but now I'm gone, and the loose ends, are strings hanging from my hands, tied to an empty land, stuck on a steering wheel in Nebraska, but I'm around,so baby call me, just before you go to bed, before you lay down your head or if you need an old fashion cry I'm your guy, Just a little more time with you, with me, with you. Just a little more time with you, with me, with you. Just a little more time with you and me. John Doe - "A Little More Time"
There was a time when men were kind. When their voices were soft, and their words inviting. There was a time when love was blind, and the world was a song, and the song was exciting. There was a time. Then it all went wrong.
I dreamed a dream in time gone by, When hope was high and life worth living. I dreamed that love would never die. I dreamed that God would be forgiving. Then I was young and unafraid, and dreams were made and used and wasted. There was no ransom to be paid, no song unsung, no wine untasted.
But the tigers come at night, With their voices soft as thunder, as they tear your hope apart, and they turn your dream to shame. Ruthie Henshall singing I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables
Quiet nights of quiet stars, Quiet cords from my guitar, Floating on the silence, that surrounds us, Quiet thoughts and quiet dreams, Quiet walks by quiet streams, And the window looking on, the mountains and the sea, how lovely, This is where I want to be, Here with you so close to me, Until the final flicker of life's ember, I who was lost and lonely, Believing life was only, A bitter tragic joke, Have found with you, The meaning of existence, Oh my love, Diana Krall
Deep within the corners of my mind I keep a memory of your faces,and I only pull it out when I long for your embrace. Deep within the corners of my mind, I'm haunted by your smile. As it promises me joys like a journey to a tropic isle. But deep within the corners of my mind, I'm praying secretly that eventually in time, There'll be a place for you and me. Melody Gardot
My heart opens to your voice. Like the flowers open to the kisses of the dawn! But, oh my beloved, to better dry my tears, Let your voice speak again! Tell me that you are returning, the promises of old times, those promises that I loved! Ah! respond to my tenderness! Fill me with ecstasy! Saint Saens "Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix" also known as "Softly awakes my heart" from Samson and Dalila.
Who told you Of this distant path Of my homeland? If you write me I'll write you. If you forget me I'll forget you till the day you come back. Sodade, Cesaria Evora
For those who took away our homes and everything else that Mary and I put together during our 17 years of love and complete devotion: I sit here content my thoughts and my feelings, remembering who I used to be. The life I have now is much more appealing. No hurries no worries for me. A bench by the shore, a coat for my pillow, a future with no guarantee. The world was a rat race and I had my fill oh. No hurries no worries for me.
The house and the car, those people around us, were really for you not for me. We worked for the dream, alas all that bound us were hurries and worries you see. Homeless Happiness. My castle's the stars and the sea. Homeless Happiness If this door is freedom then I've found the key
I'm keeping my word I'm right where we parted. My story is simple enough. Since I left behind all the plans that we charted. No hurries no worries my love. Madeleine Peyroux - Homeless happiness
Life After Death - While Deepak Chopra was writing this book, he kept getting drawn back to the traditional stories he heard as a child in India. These parables untangled the abstract issues of death, immortality, and eternity with a human face as ordinary people confronted the fear and wonder of death.As a result, Life After Death is an interwoven collection of those inspiring childhood tales and his trademark fusion of Western technology and Eastern spirituality in a world where heroes battle darkness in order to emerge into the light.On this fascinating journey into many levels of consciousness, Chopra draws upon cutting-edge scientific discoveries and the great wisdom traditions to offer us a road map of the afterlife.
Innervisions is Stevie Wonder's 14th album. Its tracks are coupled by a hovering mist of subdued faith, of a belief in the essential rightness of things; and if he seeks to offer no real solutions (should he?), neither does he allow for any easy outs, any quick glossings of the surface. The themes are simple. Life is tough but life is beautiful; find your own way, but make sure you're not simply playing the fool and kidding yourself. He gently chides the escapism of drugs ("Too High"), as well as the "Misstra Know-It-All"s who wear their ignorance like a shield. He saves his blessings for those who maintain a reverie of the world as it should be, as it inevitably is, the "Higher Ground" which must never be lost sight of or denied. It's interesting to note here that in the song Wonder directs at the "Jesus Children of America" (adding transcendental meditators and junkies into the spiritual mix), he merely asks them not to "tell lies." Later, in "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing": "Everybody needs a change/A chance to check out the new/But you're the only one to see/The changes you take yourself through."
He was despised and rejected - a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
He was despised, and we did not care.Yet is was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!
But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.
All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.
He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.Unjustly condemned, he was led away.
No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream. But he was struck down for the rebellion of my people.He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man's grave.
But it was the Lord's good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants.
He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord's good plan will prosper in his hands.When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied.
Memories of Silence, Prologue Guatemala has seen periods marked by beauty and dignity from the beginning of the ancient Mayan culture to the present day; its name has been glorified through its works of science, art, and culture; by men and women of honor and peace, both great and humble; by its Nobel Laureates for Literature and Peace. However, in Guatemala, pages have also been written of shame and infamy, disgrace and terror, pain and grief, all as a product of the armed confrontation among brothers and sisters. For more than 34 years, Guatemalans lived under the shadow of fear, death and disappearance as daily threats in the lives of ordinary citizens. Why did part of society resort to armed violence in order to achieve political power? What can explain the extreme acts of violence committed by both parties, of differing types and intensities, in the armed confrontation? Why did the violence, especially that used by the State, affect civilians and particularly the Mayan people, whose women were considered to be the spoils of war and who bore the full brunt of the institutionalized violence? Why did defenseless children suffer acts of savagery? Why, using the name of God, was there an attempt to erase from the face of the earth the sons and daughters of Xmukane, the grandmother of life and natural creation? Why did these acts of outrageous brutality, which showed no respect for the most basic rules of humanitarian law, Christian ethics and the values of Mayan spirituality, take place? The authors of the Accord of Oslo believed that, despite the shock the Nation could suffer upon seeing itself reflected in the mirror of its past, it was nevertheless necessary to know the truth and make it public. It was their hope that truth would lead to reconciliation, and furthermore, that coming to terms with the truth is the only way to achieve this objective. There is no doubt that the truth is of benefit to everyone, both victims and transgressors. The victims, whose past has been degraded and manipulated, will be dignified; the perpetrators, through the recognition of their immoral and criminal acts, will be able to recover the dignity of which they had deprived themselves. Knowing the truth of what happened will make it easier to achieve national reconciliation, so that in the future Guatemalans may live in an authentic democracy, without forgetting that the rule of justice as the means for creating a new State has been and remains the general objective of all. No one today can be sure that the enormous challenge of reconciliation, through knowledge of the truth, can be successfully faced. Above all, it is necessary to recognize the facts of history and learn from the Nation's suffering. To a great extent, the future of Guatemala depends on the responses of the State and society to the tragedies that nearly all Guatemalans have experienced personally. It should be remembered, once and for all, that there are no values superior to the lives of human beings, and thereby superior to the existence and well-being of an entire national community. The State has no existence of its own, but rather is purely an organizational tool by which a nation addresses its vital interests. Thousands are dead. Thousands mourn. Reconciliation, for those who remain, is impossible without justice. Miguel Angel Asturias, Guatemala's Nobel Laureate for Literature, said: The eyes of the buried will close together on the day of justice or they will never close.
How the Mind Works:"When a man reasons, he does nothing else but conceive a sum total from addition of parcels, or conceive a remainder from subtraction of one sum from another; which, if it be done by words, is conceiving of the consequence of the names of all the parts to the name of the whole, or from the names of the whole and one part to the name of the other part. ... For REASON is nothing but reckoning." Thomas Hobbesfrom Leviathan, written in 1651
Money and the Soul's Desires: A Meditation Stephen Jenkinson has written a gentle, wry, and insightful meditation on money and relationships. But the experiences that brought him to this point were not gentle or wry. In his own life, money was often the flashpoint in relationships, the beginning of a sad end. The problem for him and for many of us is that we see money as material, something we stand above. In fact, as Jenkinson shows, the pursuit of money and the use of money are tests of the soul and can be managed at the bidding of the soul.
Examining the relationship between money and the soul, Jenkinson ranges from our conflicted responses to money, to how various religions have tried to deal with money in a spiritual context, to our notions of filthy lucre and usury as ritual defilement.
We can come to terms with our conflict between the real and spiritual worlds, Jenkinson argues. And he offers guidance that is relevant not just to the religious but to all those who hope to achieve genuine humanity.
Cover
There I would sit, beneath the Christmas tree, looking up through the branches and squinting my eyes so that the multicolored lights became little glowing galaxies.I would lose myself in Christmas dreams, wandering into an enchanted world of dark and light and magic.
You see, what I've learned in the years is that others spent their Christmases like me, dreaming and yearning and celebrating with a special soundtrack that made it all more special.This music has helped them to recapture those moments of wonder from their youth.They have heard this music and cried and laughed and shared it with their families (old and new).Preserving the memories of Christmas. FaLaLaLaLa
Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day, You fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town, Waiting for someone or something to show you the way. Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today, And then one day you find ten years have got behind you, No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun, And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking, And racing around to come up behind you again, The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older Shorter of breath and one day closer to death, Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time, Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines, Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way, The time has gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say Home, home again, I like to be here when I can, When I come home cold and tired, It's good to warm my bones beside the fire, Far away across the field The tolling of the iron bell, Calls the faithful to their knees, To hear the softly spoken magic spells. Time - Pink Floyd
Cover Image
Inside Cover
Raz O Niaz
Missing Link (Spider)
Kids In The Alley
Divine upper reaches, Still holding on. This ocean will not be grasped, All for nothing. Refuse to surrender, Strung out until ripped apart, Who dares, dares to condemn, All for nothing. Did you really want. Portishead - Mysterons
Back Cover
Does time exist? What is the universe made of? How real is reality? Does biology operate on the quantum level? Is there life elsewhere in the universe? These are just a few of the Top 10 Questions that science has, so far, been unable to answer. We've assembled a panel of prominent physicists from around the world, and asked each of them to pose the question that they would most like to see settled. Why are they so hard to answer, and why is it important for science to find those answers? The Top 10 Unanswered Questions in the Universe.
The greatest balancing act out there is universe itself. The pull of gravity from all the galaxies nearly matches the push created by the energy embedded in empty space. But energy now seems to have the upprer hand, causing the expansion of the cosmos to gain speed.
Them that's got shall get Them that's not shall lose So the Bible said and it still is news Mama may have, Papa may have But God bless the child that's got his own That's got his own
Yes, the strong gets more While the weak ones fade Empty pockets don't ever make the grade Mama may have, Papa may have But God bless the child that's got his own That's got his own
Money, you've got lots of friends Crowding round the door When you're gone, spending ends They don't come no more Rich relations give Crust of bread and such You can help yourself But don't take too much Mama may have, Papa may have But God bless the child that's got his own That's got his own
Mama may have, Papa may have But God bless the child that's got his own That's got his own He just worry 'bout nothin' Cause he's got his own
Our thoughts are pulsations of energy which emanate from us in waveforms that are either in tune with our surroundings or out of tune, depending upon our vibration. Marvelous things await for us as we raise ourself in consciousness to higher frequencies of light Vibrations. The higher we vibrate the more we can access all the knowledge that is within us. So the purpose of life is to move up in vibration, until all we can see is pure essence of life, the pure essence of all that is. The pure essence of God that dwells in each of us, in the essence that creates the Worlds Within the Worlds.
Lucia Popp: Faure Requiem Op.48 - Pie Jesu; Faure, in this maginificant composition abandoning the bombastic death shouts, a la Verdi style in favor of a more humanistic approach. In that death is a peaceful journey into the hands of a loving and forgiving God to all that believe in the Saviour.
The end of a love affair, a failed marriage, betrayal by a friend, a family rift , a departure and a death - all deeply human tragedies which the frail human heart finds difficult to bear! Unbearable, devastating, heart wrenching! At the time it happens and in the years, months, weeks , days leading to it and after it happens, it seems as though nothing else matters. The human heart has the tendency to take over the human brain as they wrestle with our destiny! It weeps and bleeds as it grieves. And if allowed, it envelops our whole being making us emotional, irrational, unreasonable, cynical, negative and worst of all - destructive!
But soft and vulnerable as it is, the human heart is also versatile and resilient! It is capable of expanding or contracting as our brain crosswires with it and our reason guides it. When the grieving is over, it can be imbued with a renewed strength and vigour, with fresh hopes and dreams.
(B) Blessed is the man who bears temptation with patience; for when he hath withstood the test, he shall the crown of true life then be given.
(S) Ah! this sweet comfort doth Restore my heart as well, Which nought but "Ah and woe" In endless sorrow findeth And is just like a worm in its own blood now writhing. I must just like the sheep Midst countless savage wolves be living; I am a true forsaken lamb And must now to their rage And cruelty surrender. What Abel once befell, Evokes from me as well a flood of tears. Ah! Jesus, had I here No strength from thee, My courage and my heart would fail me And say with deepest sorrow: I would now yearn for death, for death, If thou, my Jesus, didst not love me. Yea, if thou me wouldst still leave saddened, I'd suffer more than pain of hell.
(B) I stretch to thee my hand, My heart as well comes with it.
(S) Ah! Sweetest bond of love, Thou canst my foes bring ruin And their great rage diminish.
(B) Yes, yes, I can thy foes destroy now Who have before me e'er accused thee, So have no fear, O anxious soul.
O anxious soul, cease now thy weeping, The sun will soon be brightly shining, Which thee now clouds of trouble sends. (B) Within my lap life's peace abideth, This I will once give thee forever.
(S) Ah, Jesus, were I now with thee! Ah, if the wind Did now graze o'er my tomb and grave, I could then ev'ry sorrow conquer. How blest are they within the coffin Who to the sound of angels hearken! Ah, Jesus, open for me too, As Stephen once, the gates of heaven! My heart is now prepared To soar aloft to meet thee. Come, come, O blessed hour! Thou canst the tomb and grave And mine own Jesus show me.
I'd quit now so quickly mine earthly existence, With gladness to part now I long at this moment. My Savior, I'd die now with greatest of joy, Here hast thou my spirit, what dost thou give me?
(B) Bring, my belove'd, my hopes to fulfillment, confiding That I'll thy bosom friend always and ever be biding, Who thee hath pleased And into heaven hath brought Out of this thy tortured body.
Those who have died have never never left The dead have a pact with the living, They are in the woman's breast. They are in the wailing child, They are with us in the home. They are with us in the crowd, The dead have a pact with the living Tis the ancestors' breath In the voice of the waters Breaths - Sweet Honey In The Rock
Those who have a firm purpose have filed away and forgotten occurrences of the past. Episodes of the past are finished with and depression will never bring the past back to life. Do not live in the the shade of what you have missed. Reading too much into the past is a waste of the present. Our tragedy is that we are incapable of dealing with the present; neglecting our beautiful castles. Everything on earth marches forward, preparing for a new season and so should you.
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. (NRSV, 1 Corinthians 13:1-3)
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end... And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. (NRSV, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13)What does the Bible say about love?
