Willow Tree

Mickey Newbury, the great American song writer who died a few years ago, wrote a song that's always been a favorite of mine for the sense of what it says. The song is "Willow Tree", but part of the lyrics goes like this:


Wish I was a grain of sand
Playin' in a babys hands
Fallin' like a diamond chain
Into the ocean.

...

A grain of sand is all I ever wanted to be
Lay me down let the water
Wash right over me wash over me.

...

Oh a grain of sand
Is all I ever wanted to be
Lay me down and let the water
Wash over me wash over me.


I bought the album the first time I heard this song and it's alway stuck in the back of my mind, trying to understand what it would be like to be a grain of sand and to lie on the beach and have the ocean wash over me, to travel where the waves take. To feel free with the water and the water carrying me, cleansing me of whatever I gained sitting somewhere else.

From Mother Teresa

“People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.

Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.

Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.

Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.

Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.

Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.

Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten.

Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.

Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God.

It was never between you and them anyway.”