SABIAN DESIDERATA

by Delle Fowler Frech
after "Desiderata" by Max Ehrmann, 1927)

GO PURPOSEFULLY AMID THE NOISE AND HASTE, AND REMEMBER A THING IS WHAT IT DOES! AS FAR AS POSSIBLE RESPECT ALL PERSONALITIES.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others . . . they too have their frame of reference.

Avoid being a loud and aggressive person, they are vexations to the spirit. Comparisons are destructive, other than to compare yourself to yourself of yesterday.

Enjoy the process leading to achievement as well as your achievements. Keep interested in your work for it is your vehicle for service.

Exercise caution in your social affairs that you always offer your best. But let this not blind you to the virtue in others; many persons strive for high ideals and everywhere life is full of beauty.

Be yourself. Especially do not aspire to be anything else.

Neither be cynical about self or life; for in the face of aridity and disenchantment, as plussage is applied by self, there is always meaning and significance.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully releasing the things of youth . . . having learned fully from those experiences.

Nurture a strength of spirit that you may find your ordeals of value. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. "Bar every harbored alarm." Beyond maintaining your self-bestowed commissions, maintain yourself within your rituals.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, "fire yourself to life magnified." You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And it is clear to you, no doubt, that the universe is unfolding for you, exactly as your consciousness perceives it. Therefore, be a partner with God, whatever you conceive him to be, and whatever your labors and your aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, MYOB (or mind your own business). With all its fellowship, work and signatures, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful that you see its beauty and thus be happy!

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