With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.
An excerpt from Max Ehrmann’s Desiderata, and I want to share it with you.
I’ve read the Desiderata once, or twice—I don’t actually know how many times—but I only felt that it “hit” me when I encountered it again on my university’s yearbook, just before the opening of the winter term.
It was just like any other sweetly timid afternoon and I was in the dormitory trunkroom looking for a mop. Honestly, I didn’t really like the idea of tidying up my room as I was quite lazy that day (and it still looked okay anyway). Then there it was! Right next to the box where the floor mops and other cleaning stuffs are kept, was a pile of old ICU (International Christian University—not what you think it means 
) yearbooks. Faces of the graduates…pictures of the faculty and staff…moments of college life…clubs and orgs… Desiderata. “Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence….”
I’d never thought I’d be cleaning up my room with such vigor! That’s what a piece of good literature—and a truthful one—can do.
Hope you’ll always remember these lines:
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should,
and go in your way inspired and overflowing with goodness to share. Even just in cleaning your room.
