these are the thoughts that go through my head...

Nobility by Alice Cary

True worth is in being, not seeming,-
In doing, each day that goes by,
Some little good- not in dreaming
Of great things to do by and by.
For whatever men say in their blindness,
And spite of the fancies of youth,
There's nothing so kingly as kindness,
And nothing so royal as truth.

We get back our mete as we measure-
We cannot do wrong and feel right,
Nor can we give pain and gain pleasure,
For justice avenges each slight.
The air for the wing of the sparrow,
The bush for the robin and wren,
But always the path that is narrow
And straight, for the children of men.

'Tis not in the pages of story
The heart of its ills to beguile,
Though he who makes courtship to glory
Gives all that he hath for her smile.
For when from her heights he has won her,
Alas! it is only to prove
That nothing's so sacred as honor,
And nothing so loayl as love!

We cannot make bargains for blisses,
Nor catch them like fishes in nets;
And sometimes the thing our life misses
Helps more than the thing which it gets.
For good lieth not in pursuing,
Nor gaining of great nor of small,
But just in the doing, and doing,
As we would be done by, is all.



I especially like this last stanza. You can't bargain for happiness, or catch it with some sort of net. What matters is we're doing something good.
Last night in study circle, we were talking about the importance of good deeds. "Guidance hath ever been given by words and now it is given by deeds." "The betterment of the world can be accomplished through pure and goodly deeds, through commendable and seemly conduct." "Holy words and pure and goodly deeds ascend unto the heaven of celestial glory." The important thing is that you're doing something, and doing good somethings. We are put on Earth to do good deeds, for God has created us to bear fruit.
O My Servants! Ye are the trees of My garden; ye must give forth goodly and wondrous fruits, that ye yourselves and others may profit therefrom. Thus it is incumbent on every one to engage in crafts and professions, for therein lies the secret of wealth, O men of understanding! For results depend upon means, and the grace of God shall be all-sufficient unto you. Trees that yield no fruit have been and will ever be for the fire.
So, our education, our friends, and our family should help us to achieve this goal, of producing good fruit. It's interesting how friendships come and go. They all have a time, a purpose. We don't often know what that purpose is or when the time will run out, but it's there for a reason.
"I've heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason, bring something we must learn. And we are led to those who help us most to grow if we let them, and we help them in return... Like a comet pulled from orbit as it passes a sun, like a stream that meets a boulder halfway through the wood..."