| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Time Machine by H. G. Wells: feet, in particular, were very sore--I carefully lowered Weena
from my shoulder as I halted, and sat down upon the turf. I
could no longer see the Palace of Green Porcelain, and I was in
doubt of my direction. I looked into the thickness of the wood
and thought of what it might hide. Under that dense tangle of
branches one would be out of sight of the stars. Even were there
no other lurking danger--a danger I did not care to let my
imagination loose upon--there would still be all the roots to
stumble over and the tree-boles to strike against.
`I was very tired, too, after the excitements of the day; so I
decided that I would not face it, but would pass the night upon
 The Time Machine |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Black Beauty by Anna Sewell: 48 Farmer Thoroughgood and His Grandson Willie
At this sale, of course I found myself in company with the old
broken-down horses -- some lame, some broken-winded, some old,
and some that I am sure it would have been merciful to shoot.
The buyers and sellers, too, many of them, looked not much better off
than the poor beasts they were bargaining about. There were poor old men,
trying to get a horse or a pony for a few pounds, that might drag about
some little wood or coal cart. There were poor men trying to sell
a worn-out beast for two or three pounds, rather than have the greater loss
of killing him. Some of them looked as if poverty and hard times
had hardened them all over; but there were others that I would have
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf: had known happiness, exquisite happiness, intense happiness, and it
silvered the rough waves a little more brightly, as daylight faded, and
the blue went out of the sea and it rolled in waves of pure lemon which
curved and swelled and broke upon the beach and the ecstasy burst in
her eyes and waves of pure delight raced over the floor of her mind and
she felt, It is enough! It is enough!
He turned and saw her. Ah! She was lovely, lovelier now than ever he
thought. But he could not speak to her. He could not interrupt her.
He wanted urgently to speak to her now that James was gone and she was
alone at last. But he resolved, no; he would not interrupt her. She
was aloof from him now in her beauty, in her sadness. He would let her
 To the Lighthouse |