Joy

You'll never get it done, and you cannot get it wrong.

This is, of course, pertaining to life in general. At first glance it sounds de-motivating. But think about it: how much misery do we put ourselves through obsessing over "getting things done" and "getting things right", hoping to arrive at some magical and elusive place of accomplishment? I am the queen of to-do lists, so I am all too familiar with this common fallacy. Even if I was to get all-of-the-things done, what then? How bored would I then be? Would I not conjure up some other desire, interest, or curiosity to then start a new list? Of course I would. Because that what life is; it is moving from desire to desire, a myriad of contrasting moments, a continual shedding of the old, and adapting to the new and the better.

I don't mean material things (although that is also true). I mean aspects of ourselves. We are not stagnant beings, and we were never meant to be stagnant beings. Movement means change, which leads to evolution, which results in expansion. In that expansion there is joy, and the freedom to choose that joy. Or not. Lucky us, we only get one moment at a time to make that choice. All previous choices are irrelevant, for those moments have quite literally passed. All the ones to come are beautiful mysteries. Joy is before you now, in this moment as it has been in all other moments, and as it will be again, and again. The best part? No matter what you choose, you cannot get it wrong.

Feminism in the early 1900's

A poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, a woman ahead of her time:

The Tides

"Oh, vain is the stern protesting
of winds, when the tide runs high;
And vainly the deep-sea waters
call out, as the waves speed by;
For, deaf to the claim of the ocean,
to the threat of the loud winds dumb,
Past reef and bar, to shores afar,
they rush when the hour is come.

"Vainly the tempest thunders,
of unsexed waves that roam,
Away from the mid-sea calmness,
where Nature made their home.
For the voice of the great Moon-Mother,
has spoken and said "Be free."
And the tide must go to the strong full flow,
in the time of the perigee.

"So vain is the cry of the masters,
and vain the plea of the hearth;
As the ranks of the strange New Woman
go sweeping across the earth.
They have come from hall and hovel,
they have pushed through door and gate;
On the world's highway they are crowded to-day,
for the hour is the hour of fate.

"Many are hurt in the crowding,
the light of the home burns dim;
And man is aghast at the changes,
though all can be traced to him.
They sat too long at the hearthstone,
and sat too oft alone:
And the silence spoke, and their souls awoke,
and now they must claim their own.

"Let no man hope to hinder,
let no man bid them pause:
They are moved by a hidden purpose,
they follow resistless laws.
And out of the wreck and the chaos
of the order that used to be,
A strong new race shall take its place
in a world we are yet to see.

"Oh, ever has man been leader,
yet failed as woman's guide.
It is better that she step forward,
and take her place at his side.
For only from greater woman,
may come the greater man,
Through life's long quest they should walk abreast -
as was meant by the primal plan."