Bank People and Coffee Girl

"You can't shake hands with a clenched fist." -Ghandi

They say that true kindness comes from those who are nice when they don't have to be. I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and I remembered when I was standing in the long line at the bank... so I told everyone I was going to take a while with the teller, and I let them go ahead. I bought the girl her coffee when she didn't have enough money. They all said thanks, and it was no problem.

Now as I'm sitting at home, I'm trying to find praise in these deeds, but it's difficult. I've started to think that it's the people we know that matter more. We look for recognition in kindness done toward our friends and family. It is easier to do something for someone unknown. I will never see the bank people or the coffee girl again, so therefore I expect nothing in return from them. If kindness is acted toward someone we know, it is harder to forget the favor, and we expect them also to remember and repay their "debt" to us. There is an unspoken obligation.

Kindness is only true when it is done and nothing in return is expected.

Death of An Ideal Love

The Phoenix and The Turtle
by: William Shakespeare

LET the bird of loudest lay,
On the sole Arabian tree,
Herald sad and trumpet be,
To whose sound chaste wings obey.

But thou shrieking harbinger,
Foul precurrer of the fiend,
Augur of the fever's end,
To this troop come thou not near!

From this session interdict
Every fowl of tyrant wing,
Save the eagle, feather'd king:
Keep the obsequy so strict.

Let the priest in surplice white,
That defunctive music can,
Be the death-divining swan,
Lest the requiem lack his right.

And thou treble-dated crow,
That thy sable gender makest
With the breath thou givest and takest,
'Mongst our mourners shalt thou go.

Here the anthem doth commence:
Love and constancy is dead;
Phoenix and the turtle fled
In a mutual flame from hence.

So they loved, as love in twain
Had the essence but in one;
Two distincts, division none:
Number there in love was slain.

Hearts remote, yet not asunder;
Distance, and no space was seen
'Twixt the turtle and his queen:
But in them it were a wonder.

So between them love did shine,
That the turtle saw his right
Flaming in the phoenix' sight;
Either was the other's mine.

Property was thus appalled,
That the self was not the same;
Single nature's double name
Neither two nor one was called.

Reason, in itself confounded,
Saw division grow together,
To themselves yet either neither,
Simple were so well compounded,

That it cried, How true a twain
Seemeth this concordant one!
Love hath reason, reason none,
If what parts can so remain.

Whereupon it made this threne
To the phoenix and the dove,
Co-supremes and stars of love,
As chorus to their tragic scene.

Threnos.

Beauty, truth, and rarity,
Grace in all simplicity,
Here enclosed in cinders lie.

Death is now the phoenix' nest
And the turtle's loyal breast
To eternity doth rest,

Leaving no posterity:
'Twas not their infirmity,
It was married chastity.

Truth may seem, but cannot be:
Beauty brag, but 'tis not she;
Truth and beauty buried be.

To this urn let those repair
That are either true or fair
For these dead birds sigh a prayer.

The Ultimate Judge

"May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. "



As we go through life, we come across obstacles that have to be conquered. Bills have to be paid when we don't have the money, people come in and out of our lives and we're not exactly sure their purpose, and sometimes friends, co-workers, and acquaintances act in ways that instill extra, confusing thoughts in our feeble minds.



In five days, I will be celebrating yet another birthday. With this wisdom that comes with age, I've come to realize that people and certain circumstances have to be forgiven. It is easy to make a list of the people who have wronged us, but when it comes down to it, I, myself am the ultimate judge of my life. I am the one who needs to forgive myself. One shouldn't worry about the "what-ifs" or the things that could've been. Everything happens for a reason, and if we truely want to make a difference, we should work on the one thing that we truely have control of... ourselves.



I, nor anyone else, can go through life feeling sorry for ourselves because things haven't worked out the way we want. God is in complete control. However, our actions, words, and thoughts reflect the way we feel about the life-plan that has been gifted to us. That is exactly what life is, a gift. And we should treat it that way in every aspect.