Because I Have Been Given Much, An Attitude of Quality

"Greatness is not always a matter of the scale of one’s life, but of the quality of one’s life.  True greatness is not always tied to the scope of our tasks, but to the quality of how we carry out our tasks whatever they are.  In that attitude, let us give our time, ... to the things that really matter now, things which will still matter a thousand years from now.

-Spencer W. Kimball

Because I have been given much, I too must give

Because of thy great bounty, Lord, each day I live

I shall divide my gifts from thee

With every brother that I see

Who has the need of help from me

Because I have been sheltered, fed by thy good care

I cannot see another’s lack and I not share

My glowing fire, my loaf of bread

My roof’s save shelter overhead

That he too might be comforted

Because I have been blessed by thy great love, dear Lord

I’ll share thy love again, according to thy word

I shall give love to those in need

I’ll show that love by word and deed

Thus shall my thanks be thanks indeed

-Grace Noll Cowell

Man in the Mirror - Michael Jackson

Gotta make a change
For once in my life
It's gonna feel real good
Gonna make a difference
Gonna make it right

As I turned up the collar on
A favorite winter coat
This wind is blowin' my mind
I see the kids in the street
With not enough to eat
Who am I to be blind
Pretending not to see their needs

A summer's disregard
A broken bottle top
And a one man's soul
They follow each other
On the wind ya' know
'Cause they got nowhere to go
That's why I want you to know

I'm starting with the man in the mirror
I'm asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and then make a change

I've been a victim of
A selfish kinda love
It's time that I realize
There are some with no home
Not a nickel to loan
Could it be really pretending that they're not alone

A willow deeply scarred
Somebody's broken heart
And a washed out dream
They follow the pattern of the wind ya' see
'Cause they got no place to be
That's why I'm starting with me

I'm starting with the man in the mirror
I'm asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and then make a change

You gotta get it right, while you got the time
'Cause when you close your heart
Then you close your mind

No message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself then make that change

-Michael Jackson

DISTINCTION

Whether your views are right or wrong

Is not a distinction I am comfortable making

Each sings the tune to his own song

Truth is available for the taking

Contention will die, but love lasts long

Why’s refusing to take sides called “sitting on the fence”

And  why can’t we simply get along

Develop real love, not just tolerance

-Liz

4/9/11

TERMINAL B

Little Chapel, peaceful and still

Tucked away, humble, hidden

Bright lights, noise, hurry by

Forget who suffered on the hill

Little Chapel, shining beacon

Stained glass wall, beauty sparkles

Light and faith and quiet thought

He who died to save all men

Little Chapel, pretty sight

Chairs and altar, sit awhile

Scripture, words of God are read

From the world, soul respite

Little Chapel, calls to some

Most pass by, never notice

Time well spent, reflect a moment

Prayer of thanks to God’s own Son

-Liz

4/9/11

Excepts from The Ballad of Reading Gaol

Yet each man kills the thing he loves
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!

Some kill their love when they are young,
And some when they are old;
Some strangle with the hands of Lust,
Some with the hands of Gold:
The kindest use a knife, because
The dead so soon grow cold.

...


Or else he sat with those who watched
His anguish night and day;
Who watched him when he rose to weep,
And when he crouched to pray;
Who watched him lest himself should rob
Their scaffold of its prey.

...


For Man's grim Justice goes its way,
And will not swerve aside:
It slays the weak, it slays the strong,
It has a deadly stride:
With iron heel it slays the strong,
The monstrous parricide!


...


And all the woe that moved him so
That he gave that bitter cry,
And the wild regrets, and the bloody sweats,
None knew so well as I:
For he who live more lives than one
More deaths than one must die.
...


I never saw sad men who looked
With such a wistful eye
Upon that little tent of blue
We prisoners called the sky,
And at every careless cloud that passed
In happy freedom by.


...


They think a murderer's heart would taint
Each simple seed they sow.
It is not true! God's kindly earth
Is kindlier than men know,
And the red rose would but blow more red,
The white rose whiter blow.


...


So never will wine-red rose or white,
Petal by petal, fall
On that stretch of mud and sand that lies
By the hideous prison-wall,
To tell the men who tramp the yard
That God's Son died for all.


...


They hanged him as a beast is hanged:
They did not even toll
A requiem that might have brought
Rest to his startled soul,
But hurriedly they took him out,
And hid him in a hole.

They stripped him of his canvas clothes,
And gave him to the flies;
They mocked the swollen purple throat
And the stark and staring eyes:
And with laughter loud they heaped the shroud
In which their convict lies.

The Chaplain would not kneel to pray
By his dishonoured grave:
Nor mark it with that blessed Cross
That Christ for sinners gave,
Because the man was one of those
Whom Christ came down to save


...


I know not whether Laws be right,
Or whether Laws be wrong;
All that we know who lie in goal
Is that the wall is strong;
And that each day is like a year,
A year whose days are long.

But this I know, that every Law
That men have made for Man,
Since first Man took his brother's life,
And the sad world began,
But straws the wheat and saves the chaff
With a most evil fan.

This too I know—and wise it were
If each could know the same—
That every prison that men build
Is built with bricks of shame,
And bound with bars lest Christ should see
How men their brothers maim.


...


And never a human voice comes near
To speak a gentle word:
And the eye that watches through the door
Is pitiless and hard:
And by all forgot, we rot and rot,
With soul and body marred.


...


And all men kill the thing they love,
By all let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword! 


-Oscar Wilde

The HUMMINGBIRD and the GAVEL

Tiny Hummingbird hovering high, flits and flutters gracefully

Searching for sweet and succulent nectar, by a flower given freely

Carefree, careful, rapid flight, ever wings a-flutter,

Brilliant, small black eyes are bright, searching its desire

Loyal bird, honey prefers, but spiders will also ingest

True to instincts, backwards flight, softly perches and rests

Brief and beautiful, feathered wings humming, floating weightlessly by

Who would ever question why? And why would one walk, when one can fly?

The gavel of Judgment hovering above, based on percepted view of past

Lifted by hands delivering hate, with thoughtless condemnation cast

The gavel of Righteousness strictly upheld, so everlastingly high

Raised with oh so pious hands, of which self-proclaimed innocence belies

The gavel of Inequality, weighted by racism, intolerance and hate

Lowered by clean, untainted hands? ... thus delivering undeserved fate

The gavel of Truth, the mallet at rest, raised or lifted by none

When in our own eye is a mote, who would cast a stone?

-Liz

4/7/11

Meaningful to one, multiplied

disjointed thoughts, placed on paper, meaningful to one, multiplied.

uncovered, thus discovered pretense, unthinkable pain, self-fracturing.

stabbing bright, hot, white streaks, deeply piercing love-weapon, 

bleeds unnoticed, cries silenced by apathy, agony absorbed, internalized blame.

burned years of penned history, disappearing like compassion,

dripping down a soft, tender cheek, wiped away by no one, in its wake, indelible scars.

emotions raw and exposed, ignored, ridiculed, labeled, sarcastic intolerance.

impossible expectations unexplained, deliver shame on embellished platter of guilt.

misguided, futile, unattractive attempts, both innocent and ugly,

unpleasantly clinging to intermittent spurts of light, broken shards of hope.

uncertain future looms, eerie masks of drama, simultaneously smiling, frowning.

hideous clown face miming life, contrasting painted smiles,

one insincere, one simply sad.

clanging, ringing alarm bells, clamor unheard,  drowned in naïveté.

false hopes lull, promises assumed, asserted, never realized.

priceless, assigned, unreachable value, unachievable, unobtainable grace.

all-encompassing black void, open wound, deep hole, heavy shovels poised,

worthy of effort by the effortless. worth determined by the worthless.

anticipated, requested viciousness, uncomprehending insanity, repeated incessantly.

harsh judgments, beyond possibility, overtake change, choking growth.

rude awakening, forked-tongue, sharp, double-edged sword, hating, hurting.

discarded maliciousness, affected fortitude, courage found, hatred denied.

unlikely, diverse origins of acceptance, embraced, witnessed, internalized.

belief renewed, illuminated, love unimaginable, ethereal peace, pleasant silence,

meaningful to one, multiplied.

- Liz

4/6/11