Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;
The soul that rises with us, our life’s star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar;
Not in entire forgetfulness…
–William Wordsworth
Human beings seem to be divided into two subspecies–the RESIGNED,who live in quiet desperation and the EXHAUSTED,who exist in restless agitation.
The quiet and resigned believe that our time on this earth is random, a roll of cosmic dice, completely beyond our control. You know these folks when you hear them; their sighs speak volumes. (Point well made, Brad!)
The restless agitatiors sense that there’s got to be something more to why we’re here, something other than discovering what money, power,or love have to do with the meaning of life. They grow their own vegetables, take vitamins, drink water, meditate, start study groups, exercise. They work five days a week and then wonder why they are perpetually cranky.
Can you tell what kind of mood I am in today? Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting…. Wordsworth had it right. I wish that I’d known from the beginning that I was born a strong woman. What a difference it would have made! I wish I’d known that I was born a courageous woman; I’ve spent so much of my life cowering. How many conversations would I not only have started but finished if I had known I possesssed a warrior’s heart? I wish I’d know that I had been born to take on the world; I wouldn’t have run from it for so long, but run to it with open arms.
Is it too late to be re-born? If only I had known!
“The soul that rises with us, our life’s star, Hath had elsewhere its setting.” -WW If only I had known….