Inspiration

Do You Fear The Wind?
By Hamlin Garland

Do you fear the force of the Wind,
The slash of the rain?
Go face them and fight them, 
Be savage again.

Go hungry and cold like the wolf, 
Go wade like the crane;
The palms of your hands will thicken,
The skin of your cheek will tan,
You’ll grow ragged and weary and swarthy,
But you’ll walk like a man!

The Man Who Thinks He Can
By Walter D. Wintle

If you think you are beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you’d like to win, but think you can’t, 
It’s almost a cinch you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost, 
For out in the world we find
Success begins with a fellow’s will;
It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you’re outclassed, you are;
You’ve got to think high to rise.
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.

Life’s a battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man;
But soon or late the man who wins 
Is the one who thinks he can.

Begin Again
By Susan Coolidge

Every day is a fresh beginning,
Every day is the world made new;
You who are weary of sorrow and sinning,
Here is a beautiful hope for you –
A hope for me and a hope for you.

All the past things are past and over,
The tasks are done and the tears are shed;
Yesterday’s errors let yesterday cover;
Yesterday’s wounds, which smarted and bled,
Are healed with the healing which night has shed.

Yesterday now is a part of forever,
Bound up in a sheaf, which God holds tight;
With glad days, and sad days, and bad days which never
Shall visit us more with their bloom and their blight,
Their fullness of sunshine or sorrowful night.

Let them go, since we cannot relieve them,
cannot undo and cannot atone;
God in His mercy, receive, forgive them;
Only the new days are our own,
Today is ours, and today alone.

Here are the skies all burnished brightly,
Here is the spent earth all reborn,
Here are the tired limbs springing lightly
To face the sun and to share the morn,
In the chrism of dew and the cool of dawn.

Every day is a fresh beginning;
Listen, my soul, to the glad refrain,
And, spite of old sorrow and older sinning,
And puzzles forecasted and possible pain
Take heart with the day, and begin again.

One Step At A Time
By Joseph Morrs

In the morning with the journey all before us on the road,
It takes courage to begin it, that is sure;
For the first step is the hardest, and we always think the load
May be greater than we’ve power to endure.

When the first mile lies behind us we can say,”Now that is done,
And the second and the third will soon be past.”
So we trudge on through the noontime, and the setting of the sun
Find us coming to our stopping-place at last.

When a man would climb a mountain he’s appalled to see the length
Of the slope that reaches up into the sky;
But he starts, and with the climbing he will find he’s gained the strength
To attain the very top, however high.
For the climbing of a mountain takes out one step at a time –
Who has courage to do that will reach the goal;

He will stand upon Life’s summit and will know that joy sublime
which is his alone who dares to prove his soul.

A Woman’s Question
By Lena Lathrop

Do you know you have asked for the costliest thing
Ever made by the Hand above?
A woman’s heart, and a woman’s life –
And a woman’s wonderful love.

Do you know you have asked for this priceless thing 
As a child might ask for a toy?
Demanding what others have died to win,
With the reckless dash of a boy.

You have written my lesson of duty out;
Manlike, you have questioned me.
Now stand at the bar of my woman’s soul
Until I shall question thee.

You require your mutton shall be always hot,
Your socks and your shirt be whole;
I require your heart to be true as God’s stars
And as pure as His heaven your soul.

You require a cook for your mutton and beef, 
I require a far greater thing;
A seamstress you’re wanting for socks and shirts –
I look for a man and a king.

A king for the beautiful realm called Home, 
And a man that his Maker, God,
Shall look upon as He did on the first
And say,”It is very good.”

I am fair and young, but the rose may fade
From my soft young cheek one day;
Will you love me then ‘mid the falling leaves,
As you did ‘mong the blossoms of May?

Is your heart an ocean so strong and deep, 
I may launch my all on its tide?
A loving woman finds heaven or hell
On the day she is made a bride.

I require all things that are grand and true,
All things that a man should be;
If you give this all, I would stake my life
To be all you demand of me.

If you cannot be this, a laundress and cook 
You can hire and little to pay;
But a woman’s heart and a woman’s life 
Are not to be won that way.