The Passionate Shepherd to his Love

Come live with me and be my Love,

And we will all the pleasures prove

That hills and valleys, dale and field,

And all the craggy mountains yield.

There will we sit upon the rocks

And see the shepherds feed their flocks,

By shallow rivers, to whose falls

Melodious birds sing madrigals.

There will I make thee beds of roses

And a thousand fragrant posies,

A cap of flowers, and a kirtle

Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle.

A gown made of the finest wool,

Which from our pretty lambs we pull,

Fair lined slippers for the cold,

With buckles of the purest gold.

A belt of straw and ivy buds

With coral clasps and amber studs:

And if these pleasures may thee move,

Come live with me and be my Love.

Thy silver dishes for thy meat

As precious as the gods do eat,

Shall on an ivory table be

Prepared each day for thee and me.

The shepherd swains shall dance and sing

For they delight each May-morning:

If these delights thy mind may move,

Then live with me and be my Love.

                                                   +C. Marlowe

                                                                      (artist: Luigi Bechi)

I Walked a Mile with Pleasure...

I walked a mile with Pleasure;

She chatted all the way;

But left me none the wiser

For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow, 

And ne'er a word said she;

But, oh! The things I learned from her, 

When Sorrow walked with me.

                                ~ Robert Browning Hamilton

buy the truth

"buy the truth and sell it not." ~ Proverbs 23:23

Go though, in life's fair morning,

Go, in the bloom of youth,

And buy, for thy adorning,

The precious pearl of truth.

Secure this heavenly treasure,

And bind it in thy heart,

and let not earthly pleasure

E'er cause it to depart.

Go, while the day-star shineth,

Go, while thy heart is light,

Go e'er thy strength declineth

while every sense is bright;

Sell all thou hast and buy it,

'tis worth all earthly things --

Rubies and gold, and diamonds,

scepters and crowns of kings.

                                 ANON

Hope is the Thing With Feathers

'Hope' is the thing with feathers -- 

That perches in the soul -- 

And sings the tune without the words---

And never stops--at all-- 

And sweetest--in the Gale-- is heard-- 

And sore must be the storm-- 

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm--

I've heard it in the chillest land-- 

And on the strangest Sea-- 

Yet, never, in Extremity,

It asked a crumb--of Me. 

~ Emily Dickinson

malaphors

"you can take one man's trash to another man's treasure but you can't make it drink"

fun fact: the blending of idioms or cliches is called a malaphor.
my personal favorite is "we'll burn that bridge when we get to it."

it may seem like a very familiar idiom but it's actually a combination of "I'll cross that bridge when I get to it" and the old adage, "don't burn your bridges."
meaning that you haven't yet arrived at a life obstacle, but you're sure you'll mess it up when you do.

oh, how I absolutely love the English language.

the "cookie thief"

"Do not accuse a man for no reason -- when he has done you no harm." Proverbs 3:30

A woman was waiting at an airport one night,
with several long hours before her flight.
she hunted for a book in the airport shop,
bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop.
She was engrossed in her book but happened to see,
that the man sitting beside her, as bold as can be,
grabbed a cookie or two from the bag between,
which she tried to ignore to avoid a scene.
She read, munched cookies, and watched the clock,
as the gutsy "cookie thief" diminished her stock.
She was getting more irritated as minutes ticked by,
thinking, "if I wasn't so nice, I would blacken his eye!"
with each cookie she took, he took one too.
When only one was left, she wondered what he'd do.
With a smile on his face and a nervous laugh,
he took the last cookie and broke it in half.
He offered her half, as he ate the other,
she snatched it from him and thought, "oh brother,
this guy has some nerve and he's also rude.
why he didn't even show any gratitude!"
she had never known when she had been so galled,
and sighed with relief when her flight was called.
She gathered her belongings and headed to the gate,
refusing to look back at the "thieving ingrate."
she boarded the plane and sank in her seat,
then sought her book, which was almost complete.
As she reached in her baggage, she gasped with surprise:
there were her cookies in front of her eyes.
"if mine are here," she moaned with despair,
then the others were his and he tried to share!
Too late to apologize, she realized with grief,
that she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief!


+Valerie Cox

Patience

"Patience is better than wisdom. An ounce of patience is better than a pound of brains. All men praise patience but few enough can practice it; it is a medicine which is good for all diseases, and therefore every old woman recommends it: but it is not every garden that grows the herbs to make it with. When one's flesh and bones are full of aches and pains, it is as natural for us to murmur as it for a horse to shake his head when the flies tease him, or a wheel to rattle when a spoke is loose; but nature should not be the rule with Christians. Or what is their religion worth?



~ Charles Spurgeon

(John Ploughman's Talk)

Courage

       To live courageously demands wholehearted commitment. Some Christians profess to have the courage to die for Christ, but they lack the courage to live daily for him...... Courage is not just the force behind spectacular public acts. It is also the motivation to carry out private deeds hardly noticeable to others.

--BJU Press - Explorations in Literature

I'm Not Alone

I'm not alone, though others go,

A different way from what I chose;

I'm not alone, though I say "No!"

I know that I will never lose.

I'm not alone though others tease

And urge that I should go their way;

I'm not alone though I displease

My friends by what I'll never say.

I'm not alone, for I now choose-

Though other folks may call me odd,

Tho' now it seems that I might lose-

To go the way that Jesus trod.

                                                 L. E. Dunkin

The Ant and the Cricket

"Go to the ant, O sluggard,

Observe its ways and be wise,

Which, having no chief,

Officer or ruler,

Prepares her food in the summer

And gathers her provision in the harvest.

How long will you lie down, O sluggard?

When will you arise from your sleep?

'A little sleep, a little slumber, 

A little folding of the hands to rest'-

Your poverty will come in like a vagabond

And your need like an armed man."

— Proverbs 6:6-11

    

A silly young cricket, accustomed to sing

Through the warm, sunny months of gay summer and spring, 

Began to complain, when he found that at home 

His cupboard was empty and winter was come.

Not a crumb to be found 

On the snow-covered ground;

Not a flower could he see,

Not a leaf on a tree.

"Oh, what will become,"says the cricket, "of me?"

At last by starvation and famine made bold,

All dripping with wet and all trembling with cold,

Away he set off to a miserly ant

To see if, to keep him alive, he would grant 

him shelter from rain.

A mouthful of grain 

He wished only to borrow,

He'd repay it to-morrow;

If not helped he must die of starvation and sorrow.

Says the ant to the cricket: "I'm your servant and friend,

But we ants never borrow, we ants never lend.

Pray tell me, dear sir, did you lay nothing by

When the weather was warm?" Said the cricket,

"Not I.

My heart was so light

That I sang day ad night,

For all nature looked gay,"

"You sang, sir, you say? 

Go then," said the ant, "and sing winter away."

Thus ending, he hastily lifted the wicket

and out of the door turned the poor little cricket.

Though this is a fable, the moral is good-

If you live without work, you must live without food.

                                                                                         -Anonymous