Time Experience Thoughts

Closely, his heart next to your heart , He holds you; yes, now when you are young, But even later as you grow older. He knows you; who you are, Who you were before this earth-time, and who you are becoming. Face to face you talk and talk over many things, over everything – As friends, as best friends. Even though trials and troubles are all about, You see through it all, eye to eye , and appreciate The beauties of this wide wondrous world. Side by side you work together in your garage, and in the yard; In your neighborhood, and in the Kingdom. Even more than the beauties of this earth, You comprehend together, pure mind with pure mind , the simplicities and complexities of the Eternities – The great principles that reveal truth, And what is of real worth. Soul to soul -- together with your dear Mother and loved ones – You reach to the heights and glories Of the highest and best that is deep within. Your father and you . . . you are one. Scott L. Vanatter, 4 July 2003 (Poem for Ryan ...

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena , whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." (Excerpt from a speech by Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne, Paris, France, April 23, 1910.)