| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: just discern in the damp dust the imprints of their feet as they had
stood locked in each other's arms. She was not there now, and "the
embroidery of imagination upon the stuff of nature" so depicted her
past presence that a void was in his heart which nothing could fill.
A pollard willow stood close to the place, and that willow was different
from all other willows in the world. Utter annihilation of the six
days which must elapse before he could see her again as he had promised
would have been his intensest wish if he had had only the week
to live.
An hour and a half later Arabella came along the same way with her two
companions of the Saturday. She passed unheedingly the scene of the kiss,
Jude the Obscure |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: until the last day, when the dead shall be raised. As long as we
live in the flesh, we are but beginning and making advances in
that which shall be completed in a future life. On this account
the Apostle calls that which we have in this life the firstfruits
of the Spirit (Rom. viii. 23). In future we shall have the
tenths, and the fullness of the Spirit. To this part belongs the
fact I have stated before: that the Christian is the servant of
all and subject to all. For in that part in which he is free he
does no works, but in that in which he is a servant he does all
works. Let us see on what principle this is so.
Although, as I have said, inwardly, and according to the spirit,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: am all aflutter about what I am supposed to be?
CLI
God hath made all things in the world, nay, the world
itself, free from hindrance and perfect, and its parts for the
use of the whole. Not other creature is capable of comprehending
His administration thereof; but the reasonable being Man
possesses faculties for the consideration of all these things--
not only that he is himself a part, but what part he is, and how
it is meet that the parts should give place to the whole. Nor is
this all. Being naturally constituted noble, magnanimous, and
free, he sees that the things which surround him are of two
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
