| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: the day, when it had become evident that the wind was failing,
Renouard, basing his advice on the shortcomings of his bachelor
establishment, had urged on the ladies the advisability of not
going ashore in the middle of the night. Now he approached them in
a constrained manner (it was astonishing the constraint that had
reigned between him and his guests all through the passage) and
renewed his arguments. No one ashore would dream of his bringing
any visitors with him. Nobody would even think of coming off.
There was only one old canoe on the plantation. And landing in the
schooner's boats would be awkward in the dark. There was the risk
of getting aground on some shallow patches. It would be best to
Within the Tides |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac: from one window to another at a regular pace, his arms folded.
" 'Have you had bad news, or are you ill?' his wife asked him timidly,
while Rosalie helped her to undress. He made no reply.
" 'You can go, Rosalie,' said Madame de Merret to her maid; 'I can put
in my curl-papers myself.'--She scented disaster at the mere aspect of
her husband's face, and wished to be alone with him. As soon as
Rosalie was gone, or supposed to be gone, for she lingered a few
minutes in the passage, Monsieur de Merret came and stood facing his
wife, and said coldly, 'Madame, there is some one in your cupboard!'
She looked at her husband calmly, and replied quite simply, 'No,
monsieur.'
La Grande Breteche |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Complete Poems of Longfellow by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: "Think of your woods and orchards without birds!
Of empty nests that cling to boughs and beams
As in an idiot's brain remembered words
Hang empty 'mid the cobwebs of his dreams!
Will bleat of flocks or bellowing of herds
Make up for the lost music, when your teams
Drag home the stingy harvest, and no more
The feathered gleaners follow to your door?
"What! would you rather see the incessant stir
Of insects in the windrows of the hay,
And hear the locust and the grasshopper
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