Let us then be up and doing, with a heart for any fate..

I am in full chuckle mode this morning over my friend Jody's facebook post. She dreamed she was a full size pez dispenser (and a working one at that) for Halloween. She would open and give people HUGE pieces of pez. That's hilarious. And Jody, I can totally picture you walking all over Charlotte like that. I'm coming this Halloween to see it.

But chuckling aside, don't we often feel like that as mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, etc? Like we're just giving out big chunks of Pez? I love it. I'm laughing all over again.

It's 8:30 in the morning and looks like 8:30 at night. It's dark and a little rainy. I know it's supposed to lift soon, but I"m having a hard time waking up here! Today is the day we head to the OM competition. I woke up with a few lines from Longfellow in my head, "Let us then be up and doing with a heart for any fate..." It struck me how appropriate this entire poem is for our OM journey this week-end, our journey as parents, and my journey as a writer. So, in honor of National Poetry Month, I'll share it in its entirety. (did I spell that correctly?)

A Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

What the heart of the young man said to the psalmist...

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
"Life is but an empty dream!"
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
"Dust thou art, to dust returnest,"
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act to each tomorrow
Finds us farther than today.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,--act in the living Present!
Heart wtihin, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sand of time;

Footprints that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing
Learn to labor and to wait.

Ahhh...great way to start the day. Be up and doing, people! Have a sublime one. Get going on your footprints of time.