Dealing
With People
"Different
Drums"
If I do not want what you want,
please try not to tell me that my want is wrong.
Or if I believe other than you,
at least pause before you correct my view.
Or if my emotion is less than yours,
or more, given the same circumstances,
try not to ask me to feel more strongly or weakly.
Or yet if I act, or fail to act,
in the manner of your design for action, let me be.
I do not, for the moment at least,
ask you to understand me.
That will come only when you are willing
to give up changing me into a copy of you.
I may be your spouse, your parent, your offspring,
your friend, or your colleague.
If you allow me any of my own wants,
or beliefs, or actions, then you open your-self,
so that someday these wants of mine
might not seem so wrong,
and might finally appear to you as right - for me.
To put up with me is the first step in understanding me.
Not that you embrace my ways as right for you,
but that you are no longer irritated or disappointed
with me for my seeming waywardness.
And in understanding me you might come to prize
my differences from you, and far from seeking to change me,
preserve and even nurture those differences."
*
* *
To
Forgive
To
forgive is not to forget,
To forgive is really to remember.
That nobody is perfect.
That each of us stumbles.
When we want so much to stay upright.
That each of us says things we wish we had never said.
That we can all forget that love is more important than being right.
To forgive is really to remember
that we are so much more
than
our mistakes.
That we are often more kind and caring
and that accepting another's flaws
can help us accept our own
To forgive is to remember,
that the odds are pretty good
that we might soon need
to be forgiven ourselves.
That life sometimes gives us
more than we can handle gracefully.
To forgive is to remember,
that we have room in our hearts to
begin again and again, and again.
*
* *
Anyway
People are
unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered.
Love them
anyway.
If
you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you
are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do
today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty
makes you vulnerable.
Be honest
anyway.
What
you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build Anyway.
People
may attack you if you help them.
Help people
anyway.
Give
the world your best and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world
your best
,
ANYWAY!
*
* *
It Takes
Courage
It takes
courage
To refrain
from gossip
When others
delight in it,
To stand up
for the absent person
Who is being
abused.
It takes
courage
To live
honestly
Within your
means,
And not
dishonestly
On the means
of others.
It takes
courage
To be a REAL
man or a TRUE woman,
To hold fast
to your ideals
When it
causes you
To be looked
upon
As strange
and peculiar.
It takes
courage
To be talked
about,
And remain
silent,
When a word
would justify you
In the eyes
of others,
But which
you dare not speak
Because it
would injure another
It takes
courage
To refuse to
do something
That is
wrong
Although
everyone else
May be doing
it
With
attitudes as carefree
as a summer
song.
It takes
courage
To live
according
To your own
convictions,
To
deny yourself
What you
cannot afford.
To love your
neighbor
As yourself!
*
* *
CONFORMITY
like
a virus
it expands, replicates
it takes control of functions which
would otherwise be normal
conformity
society
spreads its wings
casts a shadow
over all we know.
the masses of people
walk in unison
and think
in masses of thought.
eyes are closed
doors are closed
minds are closed.
*
* *
I
Want
I
want to know, when day is done,
That life has been worth living,
That I have brought somebody joy
Through kind unselfish living.
I want to feel, when evening falls
and shadows quickly lengthen
That I have made somebody glad,
Some weakness I have strengthened.
I want to know that come what may
I've left some cheer and gladness;
I want to feel at close of day
I've banished someone's sadness.
I want to feel at close of day
That someone's cares were lighter
Because of kindness I have done,
May someone's life be brighter.
*
* *
Listen
When I ask you to listen to me
and you start giving advice
you have not done what I asked.
When I ask you to listen to me
and you begin to tell me why
I shouldn't feel that way
you are trampling on my feelings.
When I ask you to listen to me
and you feel you have to do something
to solve my problem
you have failed me, strange as that may seem.
So please listen and just hear me.
and, if you want to talk,
wait a minute for your turn;
and I'll listen to you.
*
* *
LIVING AND GIVING
Whatever you give
away today,
or think or say or do
will multiply about tenfold
and then return to you.
It may not come immediately,
nor from the obvious source
but the law applies unfailingly,
through some invisible force.
Whatever you feel about another,
be it love or hate or passion
will surely bounce right back to you
in some clear (or secret) fashion
If you speak about some person,
a word of praise or two,
soon, tens of other people
will speak kind words of you.
Our thoughts are broadcasts of the soul,
not secrets of the brain.
Kind ones bring us happiness;
petty ones, untold pain.
Giving works as
surely
as reflections in a mirror.
If hate you send, hate you'll get back,
but loving brings love nearer.
Remember, as you start this day
and duty crowds your mind,
that kindness comes so quickly back
to those who first are kind.
Let that thought and this one
direct us through each day.
The only things we ever keep
are the things we give away.
*
* *
Lonely
Anonymous,
Walpole, MA
Being
left alone from the crowd,
Don't want to say out loud,
How unhappy I feel inside,
The feeling that I hide,
Doesn't ever come out,
But that's what I'm all about,
The personality I keep,
Would make me want to weep,
The real person is
here,
But not wanted there,
So these feelings make me sane,
But others will think that I am lame,
We never let our true selves out,
But they will make fun of my doubt,
About the real person I am,
Shut up like a clam,
Everyone wants me to be them,
But never wants me to be their friend.
*
* *
