If—

If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year. He gives his harness bells a shake To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound’s the sweep

Now Summer Is Gone

Now summer is gone. And might never have been. In the sunshine it’s warm. But there has to be more. It all came to pass, All fell into my hands Like a five-petalled leaf, But there has to be more. Nothing evil was lost, Nothing good was in vain, All ablaze with clear light But there has to be more. Life gathered me up Safe under its wing, My luck always held,

Something Wicked This Way Comes

A stranger is shot in the street, you hardly move to help. But if, half an hour before, you spent just ten minutes with the fellow and knew a little about him and his family, you might just jump in front of his killer and try to stop it. Really knowing is good. Not knowing, or refusing to know, is bad, or amoral, at least. You can’t act if you don’t know.

To Be Human Is To Speculate

The present is reality’s workshop. It is where scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, teachers, artists, activists, farmers, journalists, and policymakers collectively construct the world we inhabit. The present is where things happen. We live at the crest of the breaking wave of time. As soon as we make something, it becomes part of the past, a brick in history’s foundation. The moment we pass a law, adopt a puppy, discover a new scientific principle, publish a blog post, solve a problem, start a business, or ask someone on a date, it forms the context for the next moment.

Living a Quiet Life in a Noisy World

“One of the risks of being quiet is that the other people can fill your silence with their own interpretation: You’re bored. You’re depressed. You’re shy. You’re stuck up. You’re judgemental. When others can’t read us, they write their own stories—not always one we choose or that’s true to who we are.” ~ from The Introvert’s Way: Living a Quiet Life in a Noisy World by Sophia Dembling

The Man and The River

No man ever steps in the same river twice. For it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man. ~ Heraclitus

A Hat Full of Sky

Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. ~ from A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett