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A WHITE GARDENIA
by Marsha Aaron
Every year on my birthday
from the time I turned 12,
a white gardenia
was delivered to my house.
No card or note
was ever attached to it,
and calls to the florist
were always in vain.
After a while
I stopped trying to discover
the identity of the sender
and just delighted in the beauty
and heady perfume of that
one magical, perfect white flower
nestled in soft pink tissue paper.
I never stopped imagining
who the anonymous sender might be,
and some of my happiest moments
were spent daydreaming about
someone wonderful and exciting
perhaps too shy to make
his or her identity known.
My mother would contribute
to these imaginings.
She would ask
if there were someone for whom
I had shown a special kindness,
a neighbor I may have helped
or the elderly man across the street
whose mail I picked up for him
so he wouldn't take the chance
of getting hurt on icy mornings.
As a teen-ager,
I had more fun speculating
that it might be a boy I had a crush on
or one who had noticed me.
When I was 17
a boy broke my heart
and I cried myself asleep.
When I awoke in the morning,
there was a message
written on my mirror in red lipstick.
Kindly know
when half-gods go,
true gods will arrive.
I read that message often
until my heart healed
and when I finally went
to get the glass cleaner,
my mother knew everything
was all right again.
One month before
my high school graduation
my father died of a heart attack,
and I lost all interest in everything.
My mother
in the midst of her own grief
would not let me miss the prom.
The day before my father died
my mother and I had gone
shopping for a prom dress.
We found a spectacular one
with yards and yards of dotted swiss
in red white and blue
that made me feel like Scarlet O'Hara,
but it was the wrong size.
When my father died
I forgot all about the dress.
My mother did not.
The day before the prom
I found the very same dress,
in the right size,
draped majestically
over the living room sofa.
It wasn't just delivered in a box,
but presented to me
beautifully, artistically, lovingly.
I didn't care if I had a dress or not,
but my mother did.
She wanted me to feel loved and lovable,
creative and imaginative,
imbued with a sense that
there was magic in the world
and beauty even in the face of adversity.
She wanted me
and her other children
to see ourselves
much like the gardenia,
lovely, strong and perfect
with an aura of magic
and perhaps a bit of mystery.
My mother died ten days
after I got married.
I was 22
and that was the year
the gardenias stopped coming.
THE MELTING POT
By Israel Zangwill
Paraphrased for clarity or emphasis
America,
the great melting pot,
where thousands of vessels
come from all over the world
to pour their human cargo
into the hot bubbling mixture!
Such a mix it is!
Yellow, amber, brown,
red, black, white
and every other shade of skin
known to mankind merging together
in one magnificent mixture
of classes, creeds and lifestyles
melting and fusing to form
The American!
Consider the old countries
where nations and races
come to worship and look back,
as compared to the glory of America,
where all races and nations
come to work and look forward!
America is a crucible,
the great melting pot,
where all the races of the world
are melting and reforming.
How many groups, languages, histories,
blood hatreds and rivalries,
will become brotherhood as they
pass through the fires of freedom?
I will give you a fig
for all the histories and languages,
the feuds and vendettas,
because all of this is going
into the crucible of freedom!
Chinese, French, German, English,
Jew, Egyptian, Arab, Turk, Russian, Indian,
African, Irishman, Spaniard, Greek,
Italian, Syrian, Swede, Slav, Pole
and all the rest of us are mixing
in the great crucible to become
The True American
the ultimate fusion of all peoples
the common superman!
In T. S. Eliot�s The Cocktail Party,
Celia begins her first visit with a psychiatrist:
I must tell you that I should really like
to think there is something wrong with me.
Because, if there is not, then there
is something wrong with the world itself,
and that is much more frightening!
That would be terrible!
So I would rather believe
there is something wrong with me
that could be put right.
THIS LIFE IS YOURS
by Susan Polis Schutz
This life is yours.
Take the power to choose what you want to do
and do it well.
Take the power to love what you want in life
and love it honestly.
Take the power to walk in the forest
and be a part of nature.
Take the power to control your own life.
No one else can do it for you.
Nothing is too good for you.
You deserve the best.
Take the power to make your life
healthy, exciting, worthwhile
and very happy
while you reach for your dreams.
SERENITY PRAYER
God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
YOUR LIFE
By Edmund O'Neil
Your life holds unlimited potential
and wonderful dreams.
You have the ability to attain whatever you seek.
Within you is every potential you can imagine.
Always aim higher than you believe you can reach.
So often, you'll discover that when your talents
are set free by your imagination,
you can achieve any goal.
If people offer their help or wisdom
as you go through life, accept it gratefully.
You can learn much from those
who have gone before you.
But never be afraid or hesitant
to step off the accepted path
and head off in your own direction,
if your heart tells you
that it's the right way for you.
Always believe that you will
ultimately succeed at whatever you do,
and never forget the value of
persistence, discipline, and determination.
You are meant to be
whatever you dream of becoming.
FORGIVENESS
Forgiveness is letting go of the pain
and accepting what has happened,
because it will not change.
Forgiveness is dismissing the blame.
Choices were made that caused the hurt.
We each could have chosen differently,
but we didn't.
Forgiveness is looking at the pain,
learning the lessons it has produced,
and understanding what we have learned.
Forgiveness allows us to move on
towards a better understanding
of universal love and our true purpose.
Forgiveness is knowing that love
is the answer to all questions,
and that we all are in some way connected.
Forgiveness is starting over
with the knowledge that we have gained.
I forgive you, and I forgive myself.
I hope you can do the same.
By Jenny Joseph
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn�t go and doesn�t suit me
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals and say we have no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired
And gobble up samples in the shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in the rain in my slippers
And pick flowers from other people�s gardens
And I shall learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow fat
And eat three pounds of sausage at a go
Or bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils
And all manner of things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us warm
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children
And we must have friends to dinner
And we must read the papers.
Still maybe I ought to practice a little now
So people who know me
Are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old and start to wear purple.
By Collin McCarty
Your presence is a present to the universe.
You are unique and one of a kind.
Your life can be whatever you want it to be.
Take life one day at a time.
Count your blessings and not your troubles.
You will make it through whatever comes your way.
Within you there are so many answers.
Understand, have courage and be strong.
Do not put limits on yourself.
So many dreams are waiting to be realized.
Decisions are too important to leave to chance.
Reach high for your peak, your goal and your prize.
Nothing wastes more energy than worrying.
The longer you carry a problem, the heavier it gets.
Do not take life too seriously.
Live a life of serenity, not a life of regret.
Always remember a little love goes a long way.
Remember a lot of love goes on forever.
Friendship is a wise investment.
People ~together~ are the treasures of life.
Realize that it is never too late.
Do the ordinary thing in an extraordinary way.
Enjoy heatlth and hope and happiness.
Take time to wish upon that star.
Remember that if it is to be, it is up to me.
If you want to be loved, you must love and be lovable.
Never forget, even for a day,
how very special you are.
CAMELOT WAS COOL!
Wonder of wonders!
Humankind should come together,
at one huge round table,
each bursting
with enthusiastic integrity and compassion,
simply to concentrate
on the improvement of,
and the preservation of,
the human condition,
in point of fact, to guarantee
every man, woman and child
a fair chance to survive
with dignity and freedom.
Your children are not your children.
They are sons and daughters
of Life�s longing for itself.
They come through you,
but not from you,
and though the are with you,
they do not belong to you.
You may give them your love,
but not your thoughts.
They have thoughts of their own.
You may house their bodies,
but not their souls.
Their souls dwell
in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit,
not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but do not try
to make them like you.
Life does not move backward,
nor does it waste its energy
on yesterday.
You are the bows
from which your children,
as living arrows,
are sent forth.
The Master Archer sees the mark
upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you
with all His might,
that His arrows may go
swift and far.
Let your bending
in the Master Archer�s hand
be for gladness.
For even as He loves
the arrow that flies,
He also loves the bow
that is constant, steady and true.
