The Sleeper Must Awaken

                                                    Bene Gesseit "Litany against Fear"

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

~Frank Herbert  Dune

Persistence

I will persist until I succeed.

The prizes of life are at the end of each journey, not near the beginning; and it is not given to me to know how many steps are necessary in order to reach my goal. Failure I may encounter at the thousandth step, yet success hides behind the next bend in the road. Never will I know how close it lies unless I turn the corner. Always I will take another step. If that is of no avail I will take another, and yet another. In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult.

I will persist until I succeed.

Henceforth I will consider each day's effort as but one blow of my blade against a mighty oak. The first blow may cause not a tremor in the wood, nor the second, nor the third. Each blow, of itself, may be trifling, and seem of no consequence. Yet from childish swipes the oak will eventually tumble. So it will be with my efforts of today.

I will be liken to the rain drop which washes away the mountain; the ant that devours a tiger; the star that brightens the earth; the slave that builds a pyramid. I will build my castle one brick at a time for I know that small attempts, repeated, will complete any undertaking.

I will persist until I succeed.

I will never consider defeat and I will remove from my vocabulary such words as quit, cannot, unable, impossible, out of the question, improbable, failure, unworkable, hopeless, and retreat; for they are words of fools. I will avoid despair but if this disease of the mind should infect me then I will work on in despair. I will toil and I will endure. I will ignore the obstacles at my feet and keep my eyes on the goals above my head, for I know where dry desert ends, green grass grows.

I will persist until I succeed.

~Og Mandino  The Greatest Salesman in the World  Excerpt from Scroll III

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtbEIMAsBsY

The Eternal Question

Here, a truly haunting song by Blackmore's Night...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHRlWdMtvok

~Lyrics by Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night

Does this timeless query make you uneasy or fearful? Apprehensive? Depressed? The most overt symbol employed by this blog/web site is the "bridge." It certainly wasn't by accident. It has been my intention to suggest a means to span the "abyss." How the abyss manifests in your life is important only by it's identifying characteristic; hopelessness. Once one becomes disempowered or disillusioned, hopelessness thrives. Hopelessness is Hell's most efficient assassin.

I share this because renewal for the domain name has come up--and will be allowed to elapse. I speculated this would be the case last July. The remaining three months will be more than sufficient to say what hasn't been said, if indeed, things have been left unsaid. If the idea you are a dolphin in search of the ocean hasn't registered yet, allow Robert Frost to express it with more elegance:

We dance round the ring and suppose
But the secret sits in the middle and knows

The Presence

I was born in the mountains
And hatched from the sea
I travel by moonlight
Or waft on the breeze
I'm ever before you
While I ride the rear guard
I'm a song from the minstrel
And the words of a bard

I lurk in the shadows
While I stream from the sun
You've seen me in many
But I am the One
In pieces and fragments
I make myself known
I'm ever beside you
As you dance on your own

~WPG

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r82fyOb8F5w

ENLIGHTENMENT

A story told in pictures...

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Triumphal_Arch_crossing_the_Ravine_leading_to_Petra)_by_David_Roberts,_RA.jpg

Resolve

              Invictus

Out of the night that covers me
Black as the pit from pole to pole
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid

It matters not how strait the gate
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul

~William Ernest Henley

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a3oHeTM0Gw

Lord of the Dance

You have not danced so badly, my dear
Trying to hold hands with the Beautiful One

You have waltzed with great style,
My sweet, crushed angel,
To have even neared God's heart at all

Our Partner is notoriously difficult to follow
And even His best musicians are not always easy to hear

So what,
If the music has stopped for awhile

So what,
If the price of admission to the Divine is out of reach tonight

So what, my dear
If you do not have the ante to gamble for Real Love

The mind and body are notorious for holding the heart ransom, but Hafiz
knows the Beloveds eternal habits

Have patience,
For He will not be able to resist your longing for long

You have not danced so badly, my dear
Trying to kiss the Beautiful One

You have actually waltzed with tremendous style,
O my sweet,
O my sweet, crushed angel*

~Hafiz

http://www.illusionsgallery.com/Wounded-angel.html

*(for the remarkable map--to lead you from the lie)