| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Awakening & Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin: foamy crests that coiled back like slow, white serpents.
Edna had attempted all summer to learn to swim. She had
received instructions from both the men and women; in some
instances from the children. Robert had pursued a system of
lessons almost daily; and he was nearly at the point of
discouragement in realizing the futility of his efforts. A certain
ungovernable dread hung about her when in the water, unless there
was a hand near by that might reach out and reassure her.
But that night she was like the little tottering, stumbling,
clutching child, who of a sudden realizes its powers, and walks for
the first time alone, boldly and with over-confidence. She could
Awakening & Selected Short Stories |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Philebus by Plato: meaning of the word.
Again: the higher the view which men take of life, the more they lose
sight of their own pleasure or interest. True religion is not working for
a reward only, but is ready to work equally without a reward. It is not
'doing the will of God for the sake of eternal happiness,' but doing the
will of God because it is best, whether rewarded or unrewarded. And this
applies to others as well as to ourselves. For he who sacrifices himself
for the good of others, does not sacrifice himself that they may be saved
from the persecution which he endures for their sakes, but rather that they
in their turn may be able to undergo similar sufferings, and like him stand
fast in the truth. To promote their happiness is not his first object, but
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Jolly Corner by Henry James: clingingly close. It was the seal of their situation - of which he
tasted the impress for a long blissful moment in silence. But he
came back. "Yet how did you know - ?"
"I was uneasy. You were to have come, you remember - and you had
sent no word."
"Yes, I remember - I was to have gone to you at one to-day." It
caught on to their "old" life and relation - which were so near and
so far. "I was still out there in my strange darkness - where was
it, what was it? I must have stayed there so long." He could but
wonder at the depth and the duration of his swoon.
"Since last night?" she asked with a shade of fear for her possible
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