For my birthday, my mom sent me a little anthology of classic poems. One of the first to catch my eye was Walt Whitman's This Is What You Shall Do from Leaves of Grass. While I'm certainly a long way off from realizing Walt's advice, I've found myself thinking of this poem in moments of stress or frustration and it's helped me to keep the big picture in mind. Enjoy!
This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and
the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one
that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote
your income and labors to others, hate tyrants, argue
not concerning God, have patience and indulgence
toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known
or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely
with powerful uneducated persons and with the young
and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in
the open air every season of every year of your life,
reexamine all you have been told at school or church or
in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul,
and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the
richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent
lines of its lips and face and between the lashes
of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.
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