| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll: `Well, she has the same awkward shape as you,' the Rose said,
`but she's redder--and her petals are shorter, I think.'
`Her petals are done up close, almost like a dahlia,' the
Tiger-lily interrupted: `not tumbled about anyhow, like yours.'
`But that's not YOUR fault,' the Rose added kindly: `you're
beginning to fade, you know--and then one can't help one's
petals getting a little untidy.'
Alice didn't like this idea at all: so, to change the subject,
she asked `Does she ever come out here?'
`I daresay you'll see her soon,' said the Rose. `She's one of
the thorny kind.'
 Through the Looking-Glass |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Mansfield Park by Jane Austen: wages as they did at Mansfield Park, and was scarcely ever
seen in her offices. Mrs. Norris could not speak with any
temper of such grievances, nor of the quantity of butter
and eggs that were regularly consumed in the house.
"Nobody loved plenty and hospitality more than herself;
nobody more hated pitiful doings; the Parsonage,
she believed, had never been wanting in comforts of any sort,
had never borne a bad character in _her_ _time_, but this
was a way of going on that she could not understand.
A fine lady in a country parsonage was quite out of place.
_Her_ store-room, she thought, might have been good enough
 Mansfield Park |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: been entreaties, discussions: I should have wa-
vered, and perhaps failed to act on my decision,
whereas it must be so. I pray of you to forgive
me if my action grieves you. And do you, Sophie,
in particular let me go, neither seeking me out,
nor bearing me ill-will, nor blaming me . . .
the fact that I have left you does not mean that I
have cause of complaint against you . . . I
know you were not able, you were incapable of
thinking and seeing as I do, and therefore you
could not change your life and make sacrifices to
 The Forged Coupon |