Monday
Mar312014
Monday, March 31, 2014 at 04:44AM
=0=0=0=
T h e I n n e r S h r i n e
Old Kentucky Home
Asheville, North Carolina
=0=0=0=
"Mr. Rochester, I will not be yours."
Another long silence.
"Jane!" recommenced he, with a gentleness that broke me down with grief, and turned me stone cold with ominous terror -- for this still voice was the pant of a lion rising -- "Jane, do you mean to go one way in the world, and to let me go another?"
"I do."
"Jane," (bending towards and embracing me), "do you mean it now?"
"I do."
"And now?" softly kissing my forehead and cheek.
"I do" -- extricating myself from restraint rapidly and completely.
"O Jane, this is bitter! This -- this is wicked. It would not be wicked to love me."
"It would to obey you."
A wild look raised his brows -- crossed his features: he rose; but he forbore yet. I laid my hand on the back of a chair for support: I shook, I feared -- but I resolved.
"One instant, Jane. Give one glance to my horrible life when you are gone. All happiness will be torn away with you. What then is left? For a wife I have the maniac upstairs: as well might you refer me to some corpse in yonder churchyard. What shall I do, Jane? Where turn for a companion, and for some hope?"
"Do as I do: trust in God and yourself. Believe in heaven. Hope to meet again there."
"Then you will not yield?"
"No."
~from Jane Eyre~
=0=0=0=
on the 159th anniversary of her death at the age of 38.
=0=0=0=
Sunday
Mar302014
Where, grave, thy victory?
Sunday, March 30, 2014 at 04:44AM
=0=0=0=
U n d y i n g L o v e ~ U n d y i n g D a y
Magnolia Cemetery
Augusta, Georgia
=0=0=0=
Abide with me, fast falls the eventide
The darkness deepens, Lord with me abide
When other helpers fail and comforts flee
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.
Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day
Earth's joys grow dim; its glories pass away
Change and decay in all around I see
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.
I need Thy presence every passing hour
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter's pow'r?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.
I fear no foe with Thee at hand to bless
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness
Where is death's sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still if Thou abide with me.
Hold Thou Thy cross before my failing eyes
Shine thro' the gloom and point me to the skies
Heaven's morning breaks and earth's vain shadows flee
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.
~Henry Francis Lyte (1793-1847)~
=0=0=0=
For I am the LORD, I change not. ~Malachi 3:6~
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. ~I Corinthians 15:55-57~
=0=0=0=
=0=0=0=
Saturday
Mar292014
Blessings emblazoned that day
Saturday, March 29, 2014 at 04:44AM
=0=0=0=
B o a r d e r s W e l c o m e
Julia Westall Wolfe's Old Kentucky Home
Asheville, North Carolina
=0=0=0=
Here is the ancient floor,
Footworn and hollowed and thin,
Here was the former door
Where the dead feet walked in.
She sat here in her chair,
Smiling into the fire;
He who played stood there,
Bowing it higher and higher.
Childlike, I danced in a dream;
Blessings emblazoned that day;
Everything glowed with a gleam;
Yet we were looking away!
~Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)~
=0=0=0=
Friday
Mar282014
Not gold but only men
Friday, March 28, 2014 at 04:44AM
=0=0=0=
O n e
Beaufort National Cemetery
Beaufort, South Carolina
=0=0=0=
What makes a nation's pillars high
And its foundations strong?
What makes it mighty to defy
The foes that round it throng?
It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand
Go down in battle shock;
Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,
Not on abiding rock.
Is it the sword? Ask the red dust
Of empires passed away;
The blood has turned their stones to rust,
Their glory to decay.
And is it pride? Ah, that bright crown
Has seemed to nations sweet;
But God has struck its luster down
In ashes at his feet.
Not gold but only men can make
A people great and strong;
Men who for truth and honor's sake
Stand fast and suffer long.
Brave men who work while others sleep,
Who dare while others fly
They build a nation's pillars deep
And lift them to the sky.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)~
=0=0=0=
Dedicated to the precious memory of Harold C. Harvey
August 30, 1916 - March 28, 1977
=0=0=0=
Thursday
Mar272014
A pair of dauntless wings
Thursday, March 27, 2014 at 04:44AM
=0=0=0=
J u s t A s I T h o u g h t
Bonaventure Cemetery
Savannah, Georgia
=0=0=0=
Love has earth to which she clings
With hills and circling arms about --
Wall within wall to shut fear out.
But Thought has need of no such things,
For Thought has a pair of dauntless wings.
On snow and sand and turf, I see
Where Love has left a printed trace
With straining in the world's embrace.
And such is Love and glad to be.
But Thought has shaken his ankles free.
Thought cleaves the interstellar gloom
And sits in Sirius' disc all night,
Till day makes him retrace his flight,
With smell of burning on every plume,
Back past the sun to an earthly room.
His gains in heaven are what they are.
Yet some say Love by being thrall
And simply staying possesses all
In several beauty that Thought fares far
To find fused in another star.
March 26, 1874 - January 29, 1963
=0=0=0=