Monday, June 29, 2009

Steadying the Heart


Today was a different atmosphere in class. We had a presentation of poetry in class and this group of my students picked a particular poem that I had learned to love. "Life's Brief Candle" by William Shakespeare. I still remember the class with Dr. Zalina regarding that poem. A wonderful articulated poem that weakened the hearts of men and champions. Took the breath of children and women alike.

Having asked one of the students to read out loud the poem. I was disappointed. It was lifeless, without conviction and without substance. So i stood up and read the poem out loud. With passion, conviction and an immense feeling of "getting the poem".

Then i went on to explain the essence the poem from my point of view. (You should search for it)

I saw the poem as a reminder that life is so short that we should never forget to live life. Never forget to "keep the fire" burning. The poem is about living life to fullest and when i say living life to fullest im saying be ready to make mistakes and learn from them. Take that leap even when you know you might fall and get hurt. To take the opportunities that come your way and to keep smiling even in the face of adversary. Cry when you must but stop when youve had enough. Dont be reckless with other peoples heart, dont put up with people who are reckless with yours. To live in the moment, to understand that every man dies but not everyman truly lives, because living is not siting idly alone. To make choices, bad ones and good ones and pay the price for every choice you make. And to build up from failure instead of drowning in the sorrows and accepting defeat by sitting down. To choose between being good and better and being the best. because no matter what you do in life, if you are the best at it, no one will remember what you did, they'll just remember that you were the best at it.

To look at life and live it to the fullest. To fall in love and be loved, and lost and to learn to love again. To learn to hate and learn to forget hate. And all this because lifes too short to dwell in the things we cant do or things we're not destined to do. There are too many possibilities in life to be left up to chance. Reach for the moon, and pray that one day youll pull it down to earth, pull it down to earth so it need not be the light that stays too far.

To take life as it comes and embrace it.... whole

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