| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: He cried out when I used the word. 'No, no,' he said, 'not
resolution.'
'The resolution to endure,' I explained.
And then he shrugged his shoulders, and said, 'ACH, JA,' with gusto,
like a man who has been flattered in his favourite pretensions.
Indeed, he was always hinting at some secret sorrow; and his life, he
said, had been one of unusual trouble and anxiety; so the legends of
the steerage may have represented at least some shadow of the truth.
Once, and once only, he sang a song at our concerts; standing forth
without embarrassment, his great stature somewhat humped, his long
arms frequently extended, his Kalmuck head thrown backward. It was a
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Reef by Edith Wharton: celebrating her independence, and whether, as Mrs. Owen
Leath, she would present to the world a bedizened
countenance. This idea was scarcely less distasteful than
the other, and for a moment Anna continued to consider her
without speaking. Then, in a flash, the truth came to her:
Miss Viner had powdered her face because Miss Viner had been
crying.
Anna leaned forward impulsively. "My dear child, what's the
matter?" She saw the girl's blood rush up under the white
mask, and hastened on: "Please don't be afraid to tell me.
I do so want you to feel that you can trust me as Owen does.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: capable of making the most awkward inferences, of plunging
through thin ice, of recklessly undressing her emotions; but she
had acquired, under the discipline of his reticences and
evasions, a skill almost equal to his own, and perhaps more
remarkable in that it involved keeping time with any tune he
played and reading at sight some uncommonly difficult passages.
It had taken Thursdale seven years to form this fine talent; but
the result justified the effort. At the crucial moment she had
been perfect: her way of greeting Miss Gaynor had made him regret
that he had announced his engagement by letter. It was an
evasion that confessed a difficulty; a deviation implying an
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