- If for
an instant God were to forget that I am a rag doll and gifted me with a
piece of life,
possibly I wouldn't say all that I think,
- but rather I would think of
all that I say. I would value things,
- not
for their worth but for what they mean.
I would sleep little, dream more, understanding that for each minute we
close our eyes we lose sixty
seconds of light. I would
- walk when others hold back, I would wake when
others sleep.
I would listen when others talk, and how I would enjoy a good chocolate
ice cream! If God were to give
me a piece of life,
- I would dress simply, throw myself face first into the sun, baring not only my body but also
my soul. My God, if I had a
heart,
- I would write my hate on ice, and wait for the sun to show.
Over the stars I would paint with a Van Gogh dream a Benedetti poem, and
a Serrat song would
be the serenade I'd offer to the moon.
- With my tears I would water
roses, to feel the pain of
their thorns, and the red kiss of their petals... My god, if I had a
piece of life...
- I wouldn't let a single
day pass
Without telling the people I love that I love them. I would convince
each woman and each man that
they are my favorites, and
- I would live in love with love. I would show
men how very wrong they
are to think that they cease to be in love when they grow old,
- not
knowing that they grow old
- when
they cease to be in love!
To a child I shall give wings, but I shall let him learn to fly on his
own. I
would teach the old that
death does not come with old age,
-
but with forgetting. So much have I
learned from you, oh
men...
I have learned that everyone wants to live on the peak of the mountain,
without knowing that real
happiness is in how it is scaled.
-
I have learned that when a newborn
child squeezes for the first
- time
with his tiny fist his father's finger, he has him trapped forever. I
have learned that a man has
the right to look down on
- another only when he has to help the other get to his feet.
From you I have learned so many things, but in truth they won't be of
much use, for when I keep
-
them
within this suitcase, unhappily shall I be dying.
GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ
The Moments
of My High Resolve
Keep fresh before me the
moments of my high resolve.
Despite the dullness and
barrenness of the days that pass, if I search with due diligence, I
can always find a deposit left by some
former radiance. But I had
forgotten. At the time it was full-orbed, glorious, and resplendent.
I was sure that I would never forget.
In the moment of its fullness,
I was sure that it would illumine my path for all the rest of my
journey. I had forgotten how easy it is to forget.
There was no intent to betray
what seemed so sure at the time. My response was whole, clean,
authentic. But little by little, there
crept into my life the dust
and grit of the journey. Details, lower-level demands, all kinds of
cross currents -- nothing momentous,
nothing overwhelming, nothing
flagrant -- just wear and tear. If there had been some direct
challenge --a dear-cut issue -- I would have
fought it to the end,
and beyond.
In the quietness of this
place, surrounded by the all-pervading Presence of God, my heart
whispers: Keep fresh before me the moments
of my High Resolve, that
in fair weather or in foul, in good times or in tempests, in the
days when the darkness and the foe are nameless
or familiar, I may
not forget that to which my life is committed.
Keep fresh before me the
moments of my high resolve.
For The Inward Journey
by Howard Thurman
