Everythingness Blog and Desiderata

Since participating in the Reverb10 project, I've gotten exposure to all kinds of great blogs! (I think there are over 3000... so... definitely not enough time to check them ALL out..) However, I hope to at least find one each day that has something I can use for my Love eBook project.

One blog I discovered today is called: Everythingness. The author, Amy, has a great style that I enjoy.. the free-flowing conversational thoughts of a seasoned blogger.

As I was perusing her blog, I found an entry called Desiderata ("Desired Things"). The post describes how she once cared for a hospice patient by reading to her. She says:

I remember feeling ease and delight sitting next to her, listening to her sporadic breathing. This was exactly how I wanted to spend my Easter Sunday. Witnessing the dying process summons a sense of resurrection in me and is a reminder to seek life in every moment. To find it in the shadows and the light, in the tangible and the abstract.

Having spent so much time with a dying friend this last year, I can relate. I just had a conversation yesterday about the experience of caring for someone who's dying. Many people stay away because they're "uncomfortable." How sad it is that they can't put aside their discomfort long enough to experience the joy that comes from caring for someone at such an intimate and precious time in their lives.

Amy says there was a poem she saw hanging above the woman's bed and knew in that moment that the woman she was with was not a hospice patient, but a "messenger."

Desiderata – Max Ehrmann

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 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 and 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 perennial as the grass.

Take kindly to 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 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.