This Too Shall Pass

1. One day Solomon decided to humble Benaiah ben Yehoyada, his most trusted minister. He said to him, "Benaiah, there is a certain ring that I want you to bring to me. I wish to wear it for Sukkot which gives you six months to find it."

"If it exists anywhere on earth, your majesty," replied Benaiah, "I will find it and bring it to you, but what makes the ring so special?"

"It has magic powers," answered the king. "If a happy man looks at it, he becomes sad, and if a sad man looks at it, he becomes happy." Solomon knew that no such ring existed in the world, but he wished to give his minister a little taste of humility.

Spring passed and then summer, and still Benaiah had no idea where he could find the ring. On the night before Sukkot, he decided to take a walk in one of he poorest quarters of Jerusalem. He passed by a merchant who had begun to set out the day's wares on a shabby carpet. "Have you by any chance heard of a magic ring that makes the happy wearer forget his joy and the broken-hearted wearer forget his sorrows?" asked Benaiah.

He watched the grandfather take a plain gold ring from his carpet and engrave something on it. When Benaiah read the words on the ring, his face broke out in a wide smile.

That night the entire city welcomed in the holiday of Sukkot with great festivity. "Well, my friend," said Solomon, "have you found what I sent you after?" All the ministers laughed and Solomon himself smiled.

To everyone's surprise, Benaiah held up a small gold ring and declared, "Here it is, your majesty!" As soon as Solomon read the inscription, the smile vanished from his face. The jeweler had written three Hebrew letters on the gold band: _gimel, zayin, yud_, which began the words "_Gam zeh ya'avor_" -- "This too shall pass."

At that moment Solomon realized that all his wisdom and fabulous wealth and tremendous power were but fleeting things, for one day he would be nothing but dust.


2. If I can endure for this minute
Whatever is happening to me,
No matter how heavy my heart is
Or how dark the moment may be-

If I can remain calm and quiet
With all the world crashing about me,
Secure in the knowledge God loves me
When everyone else seems to doubt me-

If I can but keep on believing
What I know in my heart to be true,
That darkness will fade with the morning
And that this will pass away, too-

Then nothing in life can defeat me
For as long as this knowledge remains
I can suffer whatever is happening
For I know God will break all of the chains

That are binding me tight in the darkness
And trying to fill me with fear-
For there is no night without dawning
And I know that my morning is near.

...Helen Steiner Rice

Insane...

Time...
a thick block of weight..
slowly moving on its way..
if at all it is moving..

And as it moves it carries me along..
like guards taking a convict
towards the gas chamber.

But i do not care.

I can see myself being pulled,
all the things i can do to break free.

But i do not care.

The light at the end of the tunnel,
is probably the train coming at me...
The silver lining behind the cloud,
probably is lightning...

Has insanity, my long lost friend,
finally caught up with me?

Set Sail

Set sail.
Maybe its not a new journey.
Just a re-awakening of myself
to a journey that had long since begun...

Fickle winds guide my poor vessel,
that change directions twice a minute..

But a re-awakening in truth it is,
for unlike before,
my destination is known to me,
the end of the journey is conceivable.

I know not how it will be,
what surprises, both fair and foul,
shall align themselves on my path,

I know not how it will be,
whether the sea will be rough or smooth,

But one thing i know,
can and will do,
the rest,
will come to me, as the tides.

Alone (by Edgar Allen Poe)

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.

From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone.

Then - in my childhood, in the dawn
Of a most stormy life - was drawn
From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:
From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that round me rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by,
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.

Two Face

He yelled.
Alone, yet not alone.
There was nowhere he could run,
no place he could hide
where he couldn't be found.

He longed for quiet,
the serenity he envied in others,
that had wronfully been denied him.

But he was not to have it.
His was an existence,
solely made for the pleasure of his enemy,
Himself.

Girl...

Girl, you'll be a woman soon

I love you so much, can't count all the ways
I'd die for you girl, and all they can say is
"He's not your kind"
They never get tired of puttin' me down
And I never know when I come around
What I'm gonna find
Don't let them make up your mind
Don't you know

Girl, you'll be a woman soon
Please come take my hand
Girl, you'll be a woman soon
Soon you'll need a man

I've been misunderstood for all of my life
But what they're sayin', girl, just cuts like a knife
"The boy's no good"
Well, I finally found what I've been looking for
But if they get the chance, they'll end it for sure
Sure they would
Baby, I've done all I could
Now it's up to you

Girl, you'll be a woman soon
Please come take my hand
Girl, you'll be a woman soon
Soon you'll need a man

Girl, you'll be a woman soon
Please come take my hand
Girl, you'll be a woman soon
Soon, but soon you'll need a man

Nothing Else Matters

So close, no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
and nothing else matters

Never opened myself this way
Life is ours, we live it our way
All these words I don't just say
and nothing else matters

Trust I seek and I find in you
Every day for us something new
Open mind for a different view
and nothing else matters

never cared for what they do
never cared for what they know
but I know

So close, no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
and nothing else matters

never cared for what they do
never cared for what they know
but I know

Never opened myself this way
Life is ours, we live it our way
All these words I don't just say

Trust I seek and I find in you
Every day for us, something new
Open mind for a different view
and nothing else matters

never cared for what they say
never cared for games they play
never cared for what they do
never cared for what they know
and I know

So close, no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
No, nothing else matters