The Invitation from Desiderata

“Go placidly amidst the noise and haste.”

This above is the first sentence from a poem by Max Ehrmann entitled Desiderata. This was written in the last century between the 1st and 2nd world wars. Desiderata translates from Latin as “things to be desired.”

This poem is designed to help you focus on a desire to “make your life matter.” Without the feeling that your life matters you are like a wounded angel. You are the one can really make your life matter. I will be encouraging you to do so because I believe it is the best way to find meaning and contentment throughout your life. It is the way to abundance and prosperity. It is the way toward healing the absence of Love in many lives.

In this blog I will be unfolding Max Ehrmann`s poem and develop it as a lesson in learning to live in the 21st Century. This is a practical lesson with tips and techniques that you apply in order to create a life that matters.

I will be encouraging you all the way. The most difficult aspect of making your life matter is that you make it more conscious. In doing so you will be subject to change. None of us likes change but it will happen. It is better to instigate it now rather than spend all your energies avoiding the inevitable.

Let us begin.

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly
and listen to others.
Even the dull and ignorant: they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.


If you compare yourself with others
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser
persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career however humble:
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.


Exercise caution in your business affairs:
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is.
Many persons strive for high ideals
and everywhere life is full of heroism.


Be yourself,
especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is perennial as the grass.


Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
but do not distress yourself with imaginings.


Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars
You have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be.


And whatever your labours and aspirations
in the noisy confusion of life
keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham and drudgery and broken dreams
it is still a beautiful world.
Be careful. Strive to be happy.


Written by Max Ehrmann