Happy Wednesday, friends and Uncommoners. Today I wanted to share with you something that has always been a source of power, inspiration, and motivation to me: A Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
I was first introduced to this poem about fifteen years ago, and ever since it has stuck in my mind and continually served as a reminder for one of the basic missions of my life: keep moving forward. No matter what happens, we need to act so that tomorrow finds us further along the road to our dreams that today.
So for this rainy hump day, I present you with pure motivation material – what music/songs/quotes/poems keep you motivated and achieving?
A Psalm of Life
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, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.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 within, 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 sands 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.
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Here’s to your Uncommon Life,
