The Problem With This Whole "Good Attitude Thing" Is That It Really Works...

Seize The Day!
-StrongJoy

"The Road Not Taken"

This poem has long been one of my favorites...

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And, sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having, perhaps, the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though, as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet, knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."

-Robert Frost

Seize The Day!

-StrongJoy

A Few Announcements

I've been working very hard on my Quotations Collection and Poetry Collection during these past few days (you can find them on my sidebar) I'm extremely proud of myself for coming up with the idea so bear with me if I boast a little. I'm working to expand these collections this week and I plan to continue adding to them. That will mean hours of typing up my commonplace book and I'll have to start getting up early before anyone else has the computer but, oh well - I like getting up early.

Anyway, instead of posting my second post about Heroes today, I am slacking off on the job and giving you a tag. This is no ordinary tag, my friends. This is a tag that actually caught my interest. It was given to me by TobyBo. Here's the rules:

1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.

2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of their middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.

3. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts.

4. At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.

5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

And here is my contribution to the fun. My middle name is JOY (very short) so this should be easy.

"Joy of the Lord is my Strength" (my username is thus explained)
"One Pure And Holy Passion" is the song in my head this week- You MUST listen to it.
"Your eyes will see only what your mind is prepared to comprehend." (That IS a great quotation and what else am I supposed to do with the letter "Y"?)

And now, for my last announcement: I would like to encourage all of you to look into the Better Blogging Movement and congratulate Eyebright on this new campaign.

Seize The Day!
-StrongJoy

"Heroes" = Doing "Great Things"

Robert Louis Stevenson is a brilliant author, let there be no doubt about that. Books like Treasure Island and Kidnapped could not have been written by anyone other than a brilliant writer. Nonetheless, while reading “The Black Arrow” yesterday, one of his books that is not so well-known, I noticed something lacking in the story. After reflecting on this for some time, I turned back to his other works and began perusing them. The fact stands – his books are timeless and brilliant BUT they have one serious deficiency – there are no heroes! Stevenson never really creates a single heroic character. Those of us who have read some of the old classics are used to books where at least one admirable character is present to steal the show and win our hearts. Stevenson invents a host of characters but I find great difficulty in reconciling myself with any of them. It was only long after I finished “Kidnapped” for instance, that I was able to forgive Alan for his cowardice and even David Balfour struck me as being extremely self-centered, as did Jim Hawkins. Stevenson’s characters are disappointing. They are constantly doing the very thing you hope they will not do and though, they never really do anything absolutely base, they never do anything really heroic either.

And yet, maybe Robert Louis Stevenson knew mankind better than the authors of books with “perfect heroes.” Maybe he knew that people who haven’t learned to make the right choices every day won’t be able to make the right choice when something drastic happens. Maybe he knew something about human nature…Maybe he knew the simple truth that man is weak…and it is true, we ARE weak.

Here's another idea: maybe he DIDN’T know that we don’t have be weak forever...that there is One who strengthens us to do great things…if we KNOW Him.

I plan to expand on this thought so stay tuned...


Seize The Day!
-StrongJoy

"After The Battle" -

I wrote a lot of poetry when I was a kid but I've lost most of it and none of it was much good anyway. (If I want a good laugh, all I have to do is take out my first poetry notebook and read through some of the things I proudly scribbled down when I was eight.) There is, however, one of these early poems that I don't laugh over quite so much. When I was little, I wrote a lot of things that I didn't even understand. This is one of them. Now it makes sense to me. Now I realize what it means.

"The face is lifeless,
The eyes but stare
No heartbeat stirs the breast
No wind can blow the hair.

Here is the reason for it:
This arrow ended his time-
It's shaft looks so familiar
I wonder if it was mine."
-B.J.J. aka StrongJoy

Seize The Day!
-StrongJoy

Some Memories Stay With You Forever...

I heard this song when I was only a little child and I have never forgotten it. I've used to dream about it and the thought of it brought to my mind a picture of a dark wood. I saw myself walking through it with one Light ahead of me to follow and footsteps on the path before me. I had only to walk in those footsteps and keep my eye on the Light and I would get safely through that fearful wood and see the glorious Light at the other end of forest. Recently I found the song on some old tape stacked away and I couldn't help but cry when I heard it again- it was just so beautiful!

"Sometimes the night was beautiful,
Something the sky was so far away

Sometimes it seemed to be so close,

You could touch it but your heart would break.

Sometimes the morning came too soon

Sometimes the day could be so hot-

There was so much work left to do

But so much you'd already done.

Chorus:

Oh God, You are my God

And I will ever praise You

Oh God,You are my God,

And I will ever praise You

I will seek you in the morning

And I will learn to walk in Your ways

And step by step You lead me

And I will follow You all of my days

And step by step You lead me

And I will follow You all of my days.

And I will follow You all of my days

And I will follow You all of my days

And step by step You lead me

And I will follow You all of my days.

Sometimes I think of Abraham-

How one star he saw was lit for me.

He was a stranger in the land

And I am that no less than he.

And on this road to holiness,

Sometimes the climb can be so steep

I may falter in my step

But I'm never beyond Your reach.

Chorus:
Oh God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You
Oh God,You are my God,
And I will ever praise You
I will seek you in the morning
And I will learn to walk in Your ways
And step by step You lead me
And I will follow You all of my days
And step by step You lead me
And I will follow You all of my days.
And I will follow You all of my days
And I will follow You all of my days
And step by step You lead me
And I will follow You all of my days...."

-Rich Mullins

Seize The Joy!
-StrongJoy

High-And-Mighty Authors Have Us Fooled With Their Eloquence...

"Scintillate scintillate, globule vivific,

Fain would I fathom thy nature specific.

Loftily placed in the ether capacious,

Strongly resembling a gem carbonaceous."

-A.P. Gipps

What?! You don't know what that means? What's the matter with you?! Haven't you ever heard the song? - "Twinkle, twinkle, little star"?...

Seize The Day!
-StrongJoy

"Loved Once"

I read this last night and it reminded me of my previous post. As Anya said, in her response to that post, "God commands us to love... that command wouldn't even make sense if love was simply an emotion. Sometimes it is good to put concious effort into loving people who are hard to love." Very good point, Anya.

I

"I classed, appraising once,

Earth's lamentable sounds, - the welladay,

The jarring yea and nay,

The fall of kisses on unanswering clay,

The sobbed farewell, the welcome mournfuller,-

But all did leaven the air

With a less bitter leaven of sure despair

Than these words- "I loved ONCE."

II
And who saith "I loved ONCE"?

Not angels- whose clear eyes, love, love forsee,

Love, through eternity,

And by To Love do apprehend To Be.

Not God, called LOVE, His noble crown-name, casting

A light too broad for blasting!

The great God changing not from everlasting,

Saith never, "I loved ONCE."

III
Oh never is "Loved Once" Thy word,

Thou Victim-Christ, misprized friend!

Thy cross and curse may rend,

But having loved Thou lovest to the end.

This is man's saying - man's. Too weak to move

One sphered star above,

Man desecrates the eternal God-word Love

By his No More, and Once.

IV
How say ye "We loved once,"
Blasphemers? Is your earth not cold enow,
Mourners, without that snow?
Ah, friends! and would ye wrong each other so?
And could ye say of some whose love is known,
Whose prayers have met your own,
Whose tears have fallen for you, whose smiles have shone
So long, - "We loved them ONCE"?

V
Could ye "We loved her once"
Say calm of me, sweet friends, when out of sight?
When hearts of better right
Stand in between me and your happy light?
Or when, as flowers kept too long in the shade,
Ye find my colours fade,
And all that is not love in me, decayed?
Such words- Ye loved me ONCE!

VI
Could ye "We loved her once"
Say cold of me when further put away
In earth's sepulchral clay, -
When mute the lips which deprecate to-day?
Not so! not then -least then.
When life is shriven,
Of those who sit and love you up in Heaven,
Say not, "We loved them once."

VII
Say never, ye loved ONCE.
God is too near above, the grave, beneath,
And all our moments breathe
Too quick in mysteries of life and death,
For such a word. The eternities avenge
Affections of light range.
There comes no change to justify that change,
Whatever comes - Loved ONCE.

VIII
And yet that same word ONCE
Is humanly acceptive. Kings have said,
Shaking a discrowned head,
"We ruled once," - dotards, "We taught once and led."
Cripples once danced i' the vines- and bards approved
Were once by scornings moved:
But love strikes one hour - LOVE! those never loved
Who dream that they loved ONCE."
-Elizabeth Barret Browning

Seize The Day!
-StrongJoy