| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: He was a social man. He could not fully enjoy even a jest alone.
He wanted somebody to share the pleasure with him. Often when
care kept him awake late at night he would wander through the
halls of the Executive Mansion, and coming to the room where his
secretaries were still at work, would stop to read to them some
poem, or a passage from Shakspere, or a bit from one of the
humorous books in which he found relief. No one knew better than
he what could be cured, and what must be patiently endured. To
every difficulty that he could remove he gave cheerful and
uncomplaining thought and labor. The burdens he could not shake
off he bore with silent courage, lightening them whenever
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Awakening & Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin: the trim, stereotyped fashion-plate about it. A casual and
indiscriminating observer, in passing, might not cast a second
glance upon the figure. But with more feeling and discernment he
would have recognized the noble beauty of its modeling, and the
graceful severity of poise and movement, which made Edna Pontellier
different from the crowd.
She wore a cool muslin that morning--white, with a waving
vertical line of brown running through it; also a white linen
collar and the big straw hat which she had taken from the peg
outside the door. The hat rested any way on her yellow-brown hair,
that waved a little, was heavy, and clung close to her head.
Awakening & Selected Short Stories |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: Morike's lyrics into the garden. A great bush of purple lilac grew behind
the summer-house. There I sat down, finding a sad significance in the
delicate suggestion of half mourning. I began to write a poem myself.
"They sway and languish dreamily,
And we, close pressed, are kissing there."
It ended! "Close pressed" did not sound at all fascinating. Savoured of
wardrobes. Did my wild rose then already trail in the dust? I chewed a
leaf and hugged my knees. Then--magic moment--I heard voices from the
summer-house, the sister of the Baroness and the student from Bonn.
Second-hand was better than nothing; I pricked up my ears.
"What small hands you have," said the student from Bonn. "They are like
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