By Lindy Cady
I’m still going to put my flags out. Even though there are some people who have really screwed things up for our country — it’s still MY country. And the country of my parents, my grandparents and my ancestors from other countries who all contributed to working hard, not just for their lives and family but to make the world, particularly this country, a better place to be.
Neighbor to neighbor. Volunteer group to group. Church to church. Family to family.
So how do I feel? Not downtrodden. A bit knocked down, though. What’s that saying? “Never give up. Never surrender.” So what do I do?”
I help when I can. I hug more often. I seek out laughter. I eat as best as I can. I stay in contact with friends. I make handshakes and conversation with my neighbors. I volunteer for community efforts that make my town safer. I listen to those stuck in fear. I love the earth with my actions. And I tell my family I love them whenever I see them.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow had it right in his poem “A Psalm of Life”
Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal:
Dust thou art, to dust returneth,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than today.
Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
In the world’s broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!
Trust no Future, however pleasant
Let the dead Past bury its dead.
Act, act in the living Present!
Heart within and God o‘erhead!
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time:
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate:
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
Yep, I’m waiting.
