A Creed To Live By A Hundred Years From Now Don't undermine your worth by comparing yourself A hundred years from now it will not matter what my with others. bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the It is because we are different that each of us is kind of car I drove but the world may be different special. because I was important in the life of a child. Don't set your goals by what other people deem A Man important. Only you know what is best for you. A man that made an impression on strangers and friends. Don't take for granted the things closest to your heart. Quiet but firm and even more stern. Cling to them as you would your life, for without Strength and courage I have learned from you, them life is meaningless. but being without you is hard to do. Don't let your life slip through your fingers by living A man with pride in every step he made. in the past or for the future. A man with vigor in every phrase. By living your life one day at a time, you live all the days of your life. The tears I’ve shed cannot surpass the smiles and the laughs we had with you. Don't give up when you still have something to give. To feel your pain I could not do, Nothing is really over until the moment you stop to feel your joy I cannot explain, trying. but being without you is hard to do. A man with pride in every step he made. Don't be afraid to admit that you are less than perfect. A man with vigor in every phrase. It is this fragile thread that binds us to each other. A man that defined the word grand as only a real man Don't be afraid to encounter risks. can. It is by taking chances that we learn how to be brave. To know you’re in a better place soothes my pain. Don't shut love out of your life by saying it's Knowing you’re watching over me makes me sane. impossible to find. A man with pride in every step he made. The quickest way to receive love is to give love, A man with vigor in every phrase. the fastest way to lose love is to hold it too tightly, and the best way to keep love is to give it wings. A true story of a real man, who in the end held his family together as only a real man can. Don't dismiss your dreams. To be without dreams is to be without hope; to be without hope is to be without purpose. Don't run through life so fast that you forget not only where you've been, but also where you're going. Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way. A Mom Means... A Treasure When you need a patient listener It's more than a coverlet, Who’ll always take your part, More than a spread, Who’ll keep important secrets This beautiful quilt Locked up tight within her heart. that graces my bed. When you need a friend to help you out And cheer you if you’re blue, It's laughter and sorrow, To understand those special things It's pleasure and pain, That mean the most to you. It's small bits and pieces When you need someone to share your joys of sunshine and rain. And wish you many more, You turn to Mom because she’s shown It's a bright panorama That’s just what moms are for! Scraps of my life- It's moments of glory, It's moments of strife. It's a story I cherish Of days that have been, A Traveler Coming Home It's a door I can open To live them again. A traveler ventured forth one day Yes, its more than a cover, upon a long and winding road This much-treasured quilt, with faith and trust to lead the way, It's parts pieced together with strength and will to bear his load. Of the life I have built. And at a slow but steady pace, in cold of storm, in warmth of sun, -By Mildred Hatfield he journeyed on from place to place and gained some value from each one. Afterglow Until at last one quiet night, He climbed a hill’s soft-rounding crest I'd like the memory of me to be a happy one. and saw afar a single light I'd like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is that seemed to promise peace and rest. done. and following its glow, he came I'd like to leave an echo whispering softly down the upon the house in which it shone. ways. A voice inside called out his name Of happy times and laughing times and bright and and told him he was truly home. sunny days. I'd like the tears of those who grieve, to dry before Now all of us the sun. must travel, too— Of happy memories that I leave when life is done. like his, our paths wind slowly on, and surely when the course is through, a welcome comfort waits beyond. May we believe that sweet content is earned by all those miles passed and never doubt each traveler’s meant to reach a loving home at last. -Karen Ravn An Alzheimer’s Patient Sad Goodbye An Hour of Remembrance You can see I am slowly leaving you, Our Friends bring us warmth and understanding, I may not know you anymore. companionship, laughter and joy. They also enrich Although I have not left this life, our lives by opening doors. I’ve simply closed the door. The Friend from the world of music opens the door to Though I might fight and swear and sometimes cry, an appreciation of harmony, themes and motifs, and My tears are all in vain. the grandeur of sound. Please treat me kindly while I live, I still can feel the pain. The Friend who is the artist enlarges our vision by widening our understanding of color and I’m living in a foggy word, composition, of pattern and perspective. I cannot clear my head. And though my body is still alive, The Friend who is a writer or a reader of many books I’m one of the living dead. shows us the satisfaction of the exact word, the pleasure when form and content meet, the power of All of those whom I have loved, the imagination. Can’t pierce the veil that fogs my mind. No one knows how long I’ll live, The Friend who creates with thread or wood or clay It’s just a long “Good Bye.” opens our minds to the value of patience and craftsmanship. - Ada King The Friend from the field of law shows us the need for order and discipline, freedom And justice, and the quality of mercy. The Friend who lives with nature opens up the world of flowers and woodland, of creatures great and small, and the miracle of life itself. Our Best Friends open the portals of their hearts to us. In all of life, there is no substitution for a good friend. -Written in 1992 for the Des Moines Women’s Club, “An Hour of Remembrance” And That Is Life Attitude I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side "The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and attitude on my life. Attitude, to me, is more important starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty than facts. It is more important than the past, than and strength, and I stand and watch her until at length education, than money, than circumstances, than she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the failures, than successes, than what other people think sea and sky come down to mingle with each other. or say or do. It is more important than appearance, Then someone at my side says: “There! She’s giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company gone.” ... a church ... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we Gone where? Gone from my sight . that is all. She will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was ... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a when she left my side, and just as able to bear her certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The load of living freight to the place of destination. Her only thing we can do is play on the string we have, diminished size is in me, not in her; and just at the and that is our attitude ... I am convinced that life is moment when someone at my side says, “There! ten percent what happens to me and ninety percent She’s gone,” there are other eyes watching her how I react to it. And so it is with you ... we are in coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad charge of our attitudes." shout, “There she comes!” And that is LIFE. -Charles Swindoll -James Buckham Ascension And if I go While you’re still here, Know that I live on Vibrating to a different measure Behind a veil you cannot see through.