I asked for knowledge – power to control things;
I was granted understanding – to learn to love persons.
I asked for strength to be a great man;
I was make weak to become a better man.
I asked for wealth to make friends;
I became poor, to keep friends.
I asked for all things to enjoy life;
I was granted life, to enjoy all things.
I cried for pity; I was offered sympathy.
I craved for healing of my own disorders;
I received insight into another’s suffering.
I prayed to God for safety – to tread the trodden path;
I was granted danger, to lose the track and find the Way.
I got nothing that I prayed for;
I am among all men, richly blessed.
Author unknown
Live in such a manner that death may not find you unprepared.
Thomas à Kempis
Teach me to live, that I may dread
The grave as little as my bed;
Teach me to die, that so I may
Rise glorious at the awful day.
Thomas Ken
Lives of great men all remind me
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow