| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: (not to hint Aunt March) ought to help her. Nobody did,
however, and nobody saw Beth wipe the tears off the yellow
keys, that wouldn't keep in tune, when she was all alone.
She sang like a little lark about her work, never was too
tired for Marmee and the girls, and day after day said
hopefully to herself," I know I'll get my music some time,
if I'm good."
There are many Beths in the world, shy and quiet, sitting
in corners till needed, and living for others so cheerfully
that no one sees the sacrifices till the little cricket on
the hearth stops chirping, and the sweet, sunshiny presence
Little Women |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians by Martin Luther: This holds true also in regard to the church regulations. When I was a
monk I tried ever so hard to live up to the strict rules of my order. I used
to make a list of my sins, and I was always on the way to confession, and
whatever penances were enjoined upon me I performed religiously. In
spite of it all, my conscience was always in a fever of doubt. The more I
sought to help my poor stricken conscience the worse it got. The more I
paid attention to the regulations the more I transgressed them.
Hence those that seek to be justified by the Law are much further away
from the righteousness of life than the publicans, sinners, and harlots.
They know better than to trust in their own works. They know that they
cannot ever hope to obtain forgiveness by their sins.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: with all the false beauties which a soft and a flattering hand can give
them;--and that the others, to which he feels no propensity, appear, at
once, naked and deformed, surrounded with all the true circumstances of
folly and dishonour.
'When David surprized Saul sleeping in the cave, and cut off the skirt of
his robe--we read his heart smote him for what he had done:--But in the
matter of Uriah, where a faithful and gallant servant, whom he ought to
have loved and honoured, fell to make way for his lust,--where conscience
had so much greater reason to take the alarm, his heart smote him not. A
whole year had almost passed from first commission of that crime, to the
time Nathan was sent to reprove him; and we read not once of the least
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