This instant

There isn’t time--so brief is life--

for bickerings, apologies, 

heart-burnings, callings to account. 

There is only time for loving--

and but an instant, so to speak, for that.

                Mark Twain, Letter to Clara Spaulding

Greatness

If you want to be important-wonderful. 

If you want to be recognized-wonderful. 

If you want to be great-wonderful. 

But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. 

That's a new definition of greatness.

And this morning, the thing that I like about it: 

by giving that definition of greatness, 

it means that everybody can be great, because everybody can serve. 

You don't have to have a college degree to serve. 

You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. 

You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. 

You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. 

You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. 

You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. 

And you can be that servant.

      The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

      The Drum Major Instinct sermon, February 4, 1968

Strange Strange Days

From an accomplished singer-songwriter in Northern Ireland and a friend of Mastery
https://royarbuckle.bandcamp.com/track/strange-strange-days

Seems like Sunday all the time
Strange strange days
Silent streets no church bells chime
Strange strange days

Each day’s like Sunday It’s not real
It’s hard to say the way I feel
Sometimes I’m up and then I’m down
In the empty streets of my home town

Don’t matter what we do or say
Can’t make this one go away
Strange strange days Strange strange days

Sunday silence walk alone
Strange strange days
Everybody’s staying home
Strange strange days

When sadness grips me in the rain
I believe the sun will come again
Then we’ll walk and talk all day

We’ll see the children run and play
We’ll meet old friends and hear them say
You're looking well this lovely day
Feelin' good it’s all OK, it’s all OK it’s all OK

          Roy Arbuckle, released May 16, 2020 

Love

pleasurable attraction;
thought of the delight a thing will produce;
craving for possession and enjoyment;
yearning desire;
a foolish tenderness;
unreasoning and doting attachment;
unwillingness to be separated;
zealous admiration;
sympathy;
fondness;
intimate personal affection;
devotion;
a sort of consecration to the object;
intense loyalty;
constant service;
the mellow fruit of the passion of love;
solicitude for the welfare of its object;
protection;
confidence;
trust;
respect;
good will;
the disposition to do good and promote happiness;
far-seeing widsom which promotes welfare;
the elimination of dualism and separation;
the essence of divinity;
in some games, nothing.

Be, Do, Have

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; 

they try to have more things, or more money, 

in order to do more of what they want, 

so they will be happier. 

The way it actually works is the reverse. 

You must first be who you really are, 

then do what you need to do, 

in order to have what you want.

                  Margaret Young