Best Advice Received

DESIDERATA

GO PLACIDLY AMID THE NOISE & HASTE, & REMEMBER WHAT PEACE THERE MAY BE IN SILENCE. AS FAR AS POSSIBLE WITHOUT surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly & clearly; and listen to others, even the dull & ignorant; they too have their story. ‡ Avoid loud & aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain & bitter; for always there will be greater & lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. ‡ Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals and everywhere life is full of heroism. ‡ Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity & disenchantment it is perennial as the grass. ‡ Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue & loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. ‡ You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees & 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. ‡ Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors & aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. ‡ With all its sham, drudgery & broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ‡ ‡

Note: The legends around the source for Desiderata are interesting – at one time it was thought it had been posted on the doors to a church in the 15th or 16th century and then later, it turned out that a poet and lawyer, Max Ehrmann, wrote it in 1927 – http://www.fleurdelis.com/desidera.htm – !

16 thoughts on “Best Advice Received”

  2. Over the last few months, this piece has come up again again. Real sound advice…like my Mom whispering in my ear…. “Do this” “read this”, “read it again”. 😉

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  4. Pingback: God’s Gift to Me | Wiley's Wisdom

  6. I have always loved these words, particularly
    ‘Speak your truth quietly & clearly; and listen to others, even the dull & ignorant; they too have their story. ‡ Avoid loud & aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. ……’
    to me it they are a motto for life (along with Rudyard Kiplings ‘If’); funny how things pop up when you need to hear them – Thank you 😀

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    • “If” was my father’s favorite. 🙂 With Desiderata, certain lines pop at different times in my life, and as a whole, it rings for me. Thank you for stopping by. 🙂

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  7. And to think it was in our ’73 yearbook as our “motto.” I STILL remember it’s relevance. Just because I was thought of as an “artist” in those days, no one took me or others like us seriously, but why should they? We were all tadpoles…..

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