| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Fanny Herself by Edna Ferber: what appeared to be next Sunday's sermon, rough-drafted.
"I just wanted to talk to you." Fanny drifted to the
shelves, book-lover that she was, and ran a finger over a
half-dozen titles. "Your assistant was justified, really,
in closing the door on me. But I'm glad you rescued me."
She came over to him and stood looking up at him. He seemed
to loom up endlessly, though hers was a medium height. "I
think I really wanted to talk to you about that ravine,
though I came to say good-by."
"Sit down, child, sit down!" He creaked into his great
leather-upholstered desk chair, himself. "If you had left
 Fanny Herself |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen: could equally share, an apparent composure of mind, which,
in being the result as she trusted of serious reflection,
must eventually lead her to contentment and cheerfulness.
As they approached Barton, indeed, and entered
on scenes of which every field and every tree brought
some peculiar, some painful recollection, she grew silent
and thoughtful, and turning away her face from their notice,
sat earnestly gazing through the window. But here,
Elinor could neither wonder nor blame; and when she saw,
as she assisted Marianne from the carriage, that she
had been crying, she saw only an emotion too natural
 Sense and Sensibility |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Dreams by Olive Schreiner: wonderful pattern; it shall grow beneath MY hand. And if it be that,
labouring here for years, I should not find one stone, at least I will be
with the men that labour here. I shall hear their shout of joy when each
stone is found; I shall join in their triumph, I shall shout among them; I
shall see the crown grow." So great was my longing as I looked at the
crown, I thought a faint light fell from my forehead also.
God said, "Do you not hear the singing in the gardens?"
I said, "No, I hear nothing; I see only the crown." And I was dumb with
longing; I forgot all the flowers of the lower Heaven and the singing
there. And I ran forward, and threw my mantle on the earth and bent to
seize one of the mighty tools which lay there. I could not lift it from
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