| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Door in the Wall, et. al. by H. G. Wells: Pacific slopes there were land-slips and swift thawings and sudden
floods, and one whole side of the old Arauca crest slipped and came
down in thunder, and cut off the Country of the Blind for ever from
the exploring feet of men. But one of these early settlers had
chanced to be on the hither side of the gorges when the world had
so terribly shaken itself, and he perforce had to forget his wife
and his child and all the friends and possessions he had left up
there, and start life over again in the lower world. He started it
again but ill, blindness overtook him, and he died of punishment in
the mines; but the story he told begot a legend that lingers along
the length of the Cordilleras of the Andes to this day.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: river, with the swift pressure of the water around my knees, and an
inarticulate current of cooling thoughts flowing on and on through
my brain like the murmur of the stream. Every afternoon there were
long walks with the Mistress in the old-fashioned garden, where
wonderful roses were blooming; or through the dark, fir-shaded den
where the wild burn dropped down to join the river; or out upon the
high moor under the waning orange sunset. Every night there were
luminous and restful talks beside the open fire in the library,
when the words came clear and calm from the heart, unperturbed by
the vain desire of saying brilliant things, which turns so much of
our conversation into a combat of wits instead of an interchange of
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Tin Woodman of Oz by L. Frank Baum: looked across the ditch at the level plain beyond. On
the other side the grass had grown tall, and the sun
had dried it, so there was a fine crop of hay that only
needed to be cut and stacked.
"Why don't you cross over and eat hay?" the boy asked
the beast.
"I'm not fond of hay," replied the Hip-po-gy-raf;
"straw is much more delicious, to my notion, and it's
more scarce in this neighborhood, too. Also I must
confess that I can't get across the ditch, for my body
is too heavy and clumsy for me to jump the distance. I
The Tin Woodman of Oz |
