The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Odyssey by Homer: are afraid Jove may set them on to quarrel over their wine, and
that they may do each other some harm which may disgrace both
banquet and wooing, for the sight of arms sometimes tempts
people to use them."
Telemachus approved of what his father had said, so he called
nurse Euryclea and said, "Nurse, shut the women up in their
room, while I take the armour that my father left behind him
down into the store room. No one looks after it now my father is
gone, and it has got all smirched with soot during my own
boyhood. I want to take it down where the smoke cannot reach
it."
 The Odyssey |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Wyoming by William MacLeod Raine: position of which letter the ranch had its name.
It was during the branding that a boyish young fellow rode up and
handed Helen a note. Her heart pumped rapidly with relief, for
one glance told her that it was in the handwriting of the Ned
Bannister she loved. She tore it open and glanced swiftly through
it.
DEAR FRIEND: Two hours ago my cousin was killed by one of his own
men. I am sending back to you a boy who had been led astray by
him, and it would be a great service to me if you would give him
something to do till I return. His name is Hugh Rogers. I think
if you trust him he will prove worthy of it.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: without the sound of a foot-tramp.
When the truth-telling accents of the elderly
gentleman were hushed, I drew a long breath and looked round the
room, striving, with the best energy of my imagination, to throw
a tinge of romance and historic grandeur over the realities of
the scene. But my nostrils snuffed up a scent of cigar smoke,
clouds of which the narrator had emitted by way of visible
emblem, I suppose, of the nebulous obscurity of his tale.
Moreover, my gorgeous fantasies were wofully disturbed by the
rattling of the spoon in a tumbler of whiskey punch, which Mr.
Thomas Waite was mingling for a customer. Nor did it add to the
 Twice Told Tales |