Monday, October 4, 2010

Don't Give Up!

Dear Friends,

A blessed day to you, and thank you for your continued friendship. Our lives have been blessed a hundredfold by all of you whom we have "met" through this blog~ You have enriched our lives!

I feel impressed today to give a little note of encouragement to all of you, in whatever your situation you may find yourselves, You are doing a great work. The world may misunderstand you, your friends and family may question you, but the Lord knows you and the value of all that you are doing each day, and it is for Him that you do every little thing, when you do it with love.

So, let's pick ourselves up by the bootstraps, take a deep breath, say a prayer of gratitude for all our wonderful blessings, and give it our best today!

Love,

Marqueta


"The Chambered Nautilus"

This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
Sail the unshadowed main,–
The venturous bark that flings
On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings
In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,
And coral reefs lie bare,
Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wrecked is the ship of pearl!
And every chambered cell,
Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed,–
Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!

Year after year beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year’s dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,
Child of the wandering sea,
Cast from her lap, forlorn!
From thy dead lips a clearer note is born
Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn;

While on mine ear it rings,
Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:–

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea! 


~Oliver Wendell Holmes

7 comments:

  1. Thank you for that Marqueta. We all need encouragement from time to time. The poem I read to myself quite often is 'If' by Rudyard Kipling'. I expect you know it, if not take a look sometime.

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  2. Dear Mama♥,
    I ♥ you very, very much!:)*
    I like the post and the poem!
    I ♥ you and I like you!
    Love,
    Audrey♥

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  3. Wonderful words of encouragement...thank you for sharing!

    Blessings!
    ~Nadine

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  4. Muchas gracias mi querida amiga!

    Today was just the day that I needed to hear exactly this!

    Que Nuestro Salvador Jesus Cristo los mantega llenos de mucha salud, paz y felicidad! (felicity! in Spanish)

    Con mucho carino,

    Maria

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  5. Lovely post Marqueta...thanks so much for sharing....have a blessed week....Shelley

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  6. Yes, we all need to be encouraged. Thanks for that:-) I do like the poem and the one that Eli mentioned to "if".

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  7. you said,
    "The world may misunderstand you, your friends and family may question you, but the Lord knows you and the value of all that you are doing each day, and it is for Him that you do every little thing, when you do it with love."

    I couldn't agree more :O)

    Hope you are enjoying your days as of late. The Fall weather has crept in on us here in Florida- odd. It usually isn't this early that we experience such cool mornings and evenings. BUT, I LOVE it! I wonder if we're in for another record breaking cold front again down here in the deep south like last year ? (((( Just maybe- I'll see snow- who knows, lol!)))

    Blessings to you sweet friend and to all your beatitul children. I pray things are making their ways together nicely for your hubby's work and new living arrangements.

    Love in Chirst our Lord,
    Deanna

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