| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Vailima Prayers & Sabbath Morn by Robert Louis Stevenson: courage; if any act of mercy, teach us tenderness and patience.
ANOTHER IN TIME OF RAIN
LORD, Thou sendest down rain upon the uncounted millions of the
forest, and givest the trees to drink exceedingly. We are here
upon this isle a few handfuls of men, and how many myriads upon
myriads of stalwart trees! Teach us the lesson of the trees. The
sea around us, which this rain recruits, teems with the race of
fish; teach us, Lord, the meaning of the fishes. Let us see
ourselves for what we are, one out of the countless number of the
clans of thy handiwork. When we would despair, let us remember
that these also please and serve Thee.
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: nerves. He was not accustomed to work so long over a problem without
getting some light on it. But now, since the chance watching of the
spinning top in the street had given him his first inkling of the
trail, he was following it up to a clear issue. The eagerness, the
blissful vibrating of every nerve that he always felt at this stage
of the game, was on him again. He knew that from now on what was
still to be done would be easy. Hitherto his mind had been made up
on one point; that one man alone was concerned in the crime. Now he
understood the possibility that there might have been two, the
harmless mechanician who fancied himself a dangerous murderer, and
the handsome young giant with the evil eyes.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Memories and Portraits by Robert Louis Stevenson: thumbed and studied: houses which were once like home to me, but
where I now rarely visit. I am on these sad terms (and blush to
confess it) with Wordsworth, Horace, Burns and Hazlitt. Last of
all, there is the class of book that has its hour of brilliancy -
glows, sings, charms, and then fades again into insignificance
until the fit return. Chief of those who thus smile and frown on
me by turns, I must name Virgil and Herrick, who, were they but
"Their sometime selves the same throughout the year,"
must have stood in the first company with the six names of my
continual literary intimates. To these six, incongruous as they
seem, I have long been faithful, and hope to be faithful to the day
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