“START WHERE YOU STAND” Berton Braley THE GUEST HOUSE BY RAMI
Start where you stand and never mind the past, Take courage, man, be brave and drive ahead,
The past won’t help you in beginning new, Start where you stand.
If you have left it all behind at last This being human is a guest house.
Why, that’s enough, you’re done with it, you’re Every morning a new arrival,
through; A joy, a depression, a meanness,
This is another chapter in the book, some momentary awareness comes
This is another race that you have planned, As an unexpected visitor.
Don’t give the vanished days a backward look, Welcome and entertain them all!
Start where you stand. Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
The world won’t care about your old defeats who violently sweep your house
If you can start anew and win success, empty of its furniture,
The future is your time, and time is fleet still treat each guest honorably.
And there is much of work and strain and stress; He may be clearing you out
Forget the buried woes and dead despairs, for some new delight.
Here is a brand new trial right at hand, The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
The future is for him who does and dares, meet them at the door laughing,
Start where you stand. and invite them in.
Old failures will not halt, old triumphs aid, Be grateful for whoever comes,
To-day’s the thing, to-morrow soon will be; because each has been sent
Get in the fight and face it unafraid, as a guide from beyond.
And leave the past to ancient history;
What has been, has been; yesterday is dead
And by it you are neither blessed nor banned,
so stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit –
Don’t Quit” by Edgar A. Guest
it’s when things seem worst, you must not quit.
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
when the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,
when the funds are low and the debts are high,
and you want to smile but you have to sigh,
when care is pressing you down a bit – rest if
you must, but don’t you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns.
As everyone of us sometimes learns.
And many a fellow turns about when he might
have won had he stuck it out.
Don’t give up though the pace seems slow – you
may succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than it seems to a faint
and faltering man;
Often the struggler has given up when he might
have captured the victor’s cup;
and he learned too late when the night came
down,
how close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out – the silver
tint of the clouds of doubt,
and when you never can tell how close you are,
it may be near when it seems afar;
