| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Extracts From Adam's Diary by Mark Twain: heard the human voice before, and any new and strange sound
intruding itself here upon the solemn hush of these dreaming
solitudes offends my ear and seems a false note. And this new
sound is so close to me; it is right at my shoulder, right at my
ear, first on one side and then on the other, and I am used only
to sounds that are more or less distant from me.
Friday
The naming goes recklessly on, in spite of anything I can do. I
had a very good name for the estate, and it was musical and pretty--
GARDEN-OF-EDEN. Privately, I continue to call it that, but not
any longer publicly. The new creature says it is all woods and
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: was tired, and as a traveller exhausted by heat
and thirst longs for a draught of water and for
rest, so he longed for a respite of just one day
at least from receptions, from speeches, from
parades--a few free hours to spend like an ordi-
nary human being with his young, clever, and
beautiful wife, to whom he had been married only
a month before.
It was Christmas Eve. The young Tsar had
arranged to have a complete rest that evening.
The night before he had worked till very late at
 The Forged Coupon |
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from A Kidnapped Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum: through the tunnels to the abode of the Daemon of Repentance, who is
said to be a pleasant sort of fellow who gladly opens for one a little
door admitting you into fresh air and sunshine again.
Well, these Daemons of the Caves, thinking they had great cause to
dislike old Santa Claus, held a meeting one day to discuss the matter.
"I'm really getting lonesome," said the Daemon of Selfishness. "For
Santa Claus distributes so many pretty Christmas gifts to all the
children that they become happy and generous, through his example, and
keep away from my cave."
"I'm having the same trouble," rejoined the Daemon of Envy. "The
little ones seem quite content with Santa Claus, and there are few,
 A Kidnapped Santa Claus |