Bon Jovi Track Seven

 Jon Bon Jovi, in an interview, once said that his best song was "Track 7", to "listen to track 7" and "it's all about track 7" 

Back in the old days, everyone bought rock albums on Vinyl and an album typically had 10 tracks, 5 each side 

Track 7 would be Side 2, track 2

On cassette, and later CD, track 7 would be track 7, the concept of of Side Two only remembered by those who had built up vinyl collections, or who made a point of still buying a 12 inch vinyl, up to the point where you still could 

Bon Jovi "First Album"

Track 7 - Track 2, Side 2  - Burning For Love 

7800 Degrees Fahrenheit 

Track 7 - Track 2, Side 2 - Hardest Part Is The Night 

Slippery When Wet 

Track 7 - Track 2, Side 2 - Without Love 

New Jersey 

Track 7 - Track 2, Side 2 - Wild Is The Wind 

It gets trickier when an album has 6 tracks on side one - does track 7 mean literally the 7th track, now track one on side two, or symbolically would the best track still be in it's place of Side Two Track Two, now the eighth track on the album?

Keep The Faith 

Track 7 - Dry County 

Track 2, Side 2 - Woman In Love 

Dry County is considered one of their best compositions, also a single, while Woman In Love is a great rock track, an obscure album track to all but the true fans

Some view I Believe as the "bonus" track that opens the album, with the title track, it's lead single, being the true track one, which makes Woman In Love the track 7 

From Keep The Faith onwards, all Bon Jovi albums, now leading with CD sales rather than vinyl, would have at least 12 tracks, making the discussion about whether we consider Track 7 on the CD or "Track 2, Side 2" symbolic - and this depends on what you consider to be the better song, the true "hidden gem" that Jon was talking about 

These Days 

Track 7 - My Guitar Lies Bleeding In My Arms 

Track 2 Side 2 - It's Hard Letting You Go 

It could be that the classic Bon Jovi fan from the vinyl era would still by his Bon Jovi albums on 12 inch vinyl, and would look to Side Two Track Two as Jon's hidden gem, would not buy the CD and ignore the CD listing 

After the 5 year gap between These Days and Crush, Bon Jovi shifted into the Millenium and their new era, where they no longer had the big release singles like Living On A Prayer and Bad Medicine, many people believing It's My Life to be their last great single release, and last great stadium song

So some fans, now buying BJ CDs, find the concept no longer applies. This would be up to a fan whether they wanted to see if the Track 7 listed is the hidden gem, and if they want to compare it to Track 8, the symbolic "Side 2 Track2" 

Crush 

Track 7 - Mystery Train 

Track 8 - Save The World 

The rest you can look up on your collection at home if you were still buying BJ albums at this point 

HAZY SHADE OF WINTER

 

Time, time, time
See what's become of me

Time, time, time
See what's become of me
While I looked around for my possibilities

I was so hard to please
Look around
Leaves are brown
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter

Hear the Salvation Army band
Down by the riverside
There's bound to be a better ride
Than what you've got planned

Carry a cup in your hand
Look around
Leaves are brown
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter

Hang on to your hopes, my friend
That's an easy thing to say
But if your hopes should pass away
Simply pretend that you can build them again

Look around
The grass is high
The fields are ripe
It's the springtime of my life

Seasons change with the scenery
Weavin' time in a tapestry
Won't you stop and remember me?

Look around
Leaves are brown
And the sky is a hazy shade of winter

Look around
Leaves are brown
There's a patch of snow on the ground

Look around
Leaves are brown
There's a patch of snow on the ground

Look around
Leaves are brown
There's a patch of snow on the ground

WINTER by Tori Amos

 

Snow can wait, I forgot my mittens
Wipe my nose, get my new boots on
I get a little warm in my heart when I think of winter
I put my hand in my father's glove

I run off where the drifts get deeper
Sleeping Beauty trips me with a frown
I hear a voice, "You must learn to stand up
For yourself 'cause I can't always be around"

He says, when you gonna make up your mind?
When you gonna love you as much as I do?
When you gonna make up your mind?
'Cause things are gonna change so fast
All the white horses are still in bed
I tell you that I'll always want you near
You say that things change, my dear

Boys get discovered as winter melts
Flowers competing for the sun
Years go by and I'm here still waiting
Withering where some snowman was

Mirror, mirror, where's the crystal palace?
But I only can see myself
Skating around the truth who I am
But I know, Dad, the ice is getting thin

When you gonna make up your mind?
When you gonna love you as much as I do?
When you gonna make up your mind?
'Cause things are gonna change so fast
All the white horses are still in bed
I tell you that I'll always want you near
You say that things change, my dear

Hair is grey and the fires are burning
So many dreams on the shelf
You say I wanted you to be proud
I always wanted that myself

When you gonna make up your mind?
When you gonna love you as much as I do?
When you gonna make up your mind?
'Cause things are gonna change so fast
All the white horses have gone ahead
I tell you that I'll always want you near
You say that things change, my dear

Never change

All the white horses aah-aah
Mmm-mmm

 

How passionately we love everything that cannot last.

The dazzling crystallory of winter,
The spring in bloom,
The fragile flight of butterflies,
Crimson sunsets,
A kiss,

And Life.

This world is the Theatre of the Absurd ...

 

and I am The Lord of Misrule

The Lord of Misrule

In Britain, the Lord of Misrule — known in Scotland as the Abbot of Unreason and in France as the Prince des Sots — was an officer appointed by lot at Christmas to preside over the Feast of Fools. 

The Lord of Misrule was generally a peasant or sub-deacon appointed to be in charge of Christmas revelries, which often included drunkenness and wild partying, in the pagan tradition of Saturnalia. The Church held a similar festival involving a Boy Bishop. 

The celebration of the Feast of Fools was outlawed by the Council of Basel that sat from 1431, but it survived to be put down again by the Catholic Queen Mary I in England in 1555.

While mostly known as a British holiday custom, the appointment of a Lord of Misrule comes from antiquity. In ancient Rome, from the 17th to the 23rd of December, a Lord of Misrule was appointed for the feast of Saturnalia, in the guise of the good god Saturn. 

During this time the ordinary rules of life were turned topsy-turvy as masters served their slaves, and the offices of state were held by slaves. The Lord of Misrule presided over all of this, and had the power to command anyone to do anything during the holiday period. 

This holiday seems to be the precursor to the more modern holiday, and it carried over into the Christian era.

Saturnalia

 Saturnalia

Saturnalia became one of the most popular Roman festivals. It was marked by drunken orgies, tomfoolery and reversal of social roles, in which slaves and masters ostensibly switched places, much like the Lord of Misrule in later Christian celebrations.

Saturnalia was introduced around 217 BC to raise citizen morale after a crushing military defeat at the hands of the Carthaginians.[1] Originally celebrated for a day, on December 17, its popularity saw it grow until it became a week-long extravaganza, ending on the 23rd. Efforts to shorten the celebration were unsuccessful. Augustus tried to reduce it to three days, and Caligula to five. These attempts caused uproar and massive revolts among the Roman citizens.

Saturnalia involved the conventional sacrifices, a couch (lectisternium) set out in front of the temple of Saturn and the untying of the ropes that bound the statue of Saturn during the rest of the year. A Saturnalicius princeps was elected master of ceremonies for the proceedings. Besides the public rites there were a series of holidays and customs celebrated privately. The celebrations included a school holiday, the making and giving of small presents (saturnalia et sigillaricia), massive and multiple group orgies, and a special market (sigillaria). Gambling was allowed for all, even slaves.

The toga was not worn, but rather the synthesis, i.e. colourful, informal "dinner clothes"; and the pileus (freedman's hat) was worn by everyone. Slaves were exempt from punishment, and treated their masters with (a pretense of) disrespect. The slaves celebrated a banquet: before, with, or served by the masters. Yet the reversal of the social order was mostly superficial; the banquet, for example, would often be prepared by the slaves, and they would prepare their masters' dinner as well. It was license within careful boundaries; it reversed the social order without subverting it.[2]

The customary greeting for the occasion is a "Io, Saturnalia!" — Io (pronounced "e-o") being a Latin interjection related to "ho" (as in "Ho, praise to Saturn").

Happy Samhain

 

Samhain is observed from sunset on October 31st to sunset on November 1st. 

It is the celebration that is the origin of Halloween. 

Samhain was first observed by Celtic Pagans. 

Samhain marked the Celtic New Year, the end of summer, and the end of the harvest season

October 31 became known as All Hallows Eve, or Halloween, and contained much of the traditional pagan practices before being adopted in 19th-century America through Irish immigrants bringing their traditions across the ocean

For the Celts, who lived during the Iron Age in what is now Ireland, Scotland, the U.K. and other parts of Northern Europe, Samhain (meaning literally, in modern Irish, “summer's end”) marked the end of summer and kicked off the Celtic new year

According to the later Dindsenchas and the Annals of the Four Masters—which were written by Christian monks—Samhain in ancient Ireland was associated with a god or idol called Crom Cruach.

Samhain, also known as the origin of Halloween, was a powerful and special demon of Hell and was one of the 66 Seals. He could only rise when summoned by two powerful witches through three blood sacrifices over three days, with the last sacrifice day on the final harvest, Halloween.

If we define it as a celebration of the pre-Christianization or kind of the Mexican Day of the Dead or the Irish Samhain, the Viking did have that kind of celebration. The Vikings themselves had the celebrations called the Blóts

In addition to being a time to honor family members, friends and pets who have passed away, Samhain is the final harvest holiday and marks the end—and therefore beginning—of a new cycle on the Wheel. Most Wiccans believe in reincarnation and view death as simply another stage of life.

The name Halloween comes from a Scottish shortening of All Hallows' Eve 

In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor saints. Soon after, All Saints Day came to incorporate some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before All Saints Day was known as All Hallows Eve, and later, Halloween.

Many Christians believe that participating in Halloween is a form of involvement in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness, which is forbidden in Scripture: Ephesians 5:7-15. Don't participate in the things these people do. For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord

On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future.

Samhain was known in Ireland as the “Lord of Darkness”. The Druid religion was practiced by ancient Celtic tribes that populated Ireland and parts of Europe. This religion worshipped Samhain, the Lord of Darkness. Some writings also speak of Samhain as the “Lord of the Dead”

All Hallows Eve eventually became Halloween. “Although All Saints Day is actually on November 1, the Celts began their festivals at sunset, so the holiday began on the evening before (Oct. 31) 

A Night in the Lonesome October

 

The skies they were ashen and sober;
The leaves they were crisped and sere—
The leaves they were withering and sere;
It was night in the lonesome October
Of my most immemorial year 

Ulalume

 

"Ulalume"  is a poem written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1847. 

Much like a few of Poe's other poems such as "The Raven", "Annabel Lee", and "Lenore", "Ulalume" focuses on the narrator's loss of his beloved due to her death.

The poem takes place on a night in the "lonesome October" with a gray sky as the leaves are withering for the autumn season. In the region of Weir, by the lake of Auber, the narrator roams with a "volcanic" heart. 

He has a "serious and sober" talk with his soul, though he does not realize it is October or where his roaming is leading him. 

He remarks on the stars as night fades away, remarking on the brightest one, and wonders if it knows that the tears on his cheeks have not yet dried. His soul, however, mistrusts the star and where it is leading them. 

Just as the narrator calms his soul, he realizes he has unconsciously walked to the vault of his "lost Ulalume" on the very night he had buried her a year before

Unlike Poe's poem "Annabel Lee", this poem presents a narrator who is not conscious of his return to the grave of his lost love. This reveals the speaker's dependence on Ulalume and her love; his losing her leaves him not only sad but absolutely devastated and, by visiting her grave, he unconsciously subjects himself to further self-inflicted anguish.

The poem has a heavy focus on decay and deterioration: the leaves are "withering" and the narrator's thoughts are "palsied".

 Like many of Poe's later poems, "Ulalume" has a strong sense of rhythm and musicality. The verses are purposefully sonorous, built around sound to create feelings of sadness and anguish.

 The poem employs Poe's typical theme of the "death of a beautiful woman", which he considered "the most poetical topic in the world". Biographers and critics have often suggested that Poe's obsession with this theme stems from the repeated loss of women throughout his life, including his mother Eliza Poe, his wife, and his foster mother Frances Allan.

"Ulalume" serves as a sequel to "The Raven". Poetically, the name Ulalume emphasizes the letter L, a frequent device in Poe's female characters such as "Annabel Lee", "Eulalie", and "Lenore". If it really stands for a deceased love, Poe's choosing to refer to Ulalume as "the thing" and "the secret" do not seem endearing terms. In one possible view, Ulalume may be representative of death itself.

The title itself suggests wailing (from the Latin ululare). The name may also allude to the Latin lumen, a light symbolizing sorrow. The narrator personifies his soul as the ancient Greek Psyche, representing the irrational but careful part of his subconsciousness. It is Psyche who first feels concerned about where they are walking and makes the first recognition that they have reached Ulalume's vault.

The bright star they see is Astarte, a goddess associated with Venus and connected with fertility and sexuality. The "sinfully scintillant planet" in the original final verse is another reference to Venus. Astarte may represent a sexual temptress or a vision of the ideal. 

Mount Yaanek, with its "sulphurous currents" in the "ultimate climes of the pole", has been associated with Mount Erebus, a volcano in Antarctica first sighted in 1841, although Yaanek's location is specified as being in "the realms of the boreal pole", indicating an Arctic location rather than an Antarctic one for the fictional counterpart. 

The Auber and Weir references in the poem may be to two contemporaries of Poe: Daniel François Esprit Auber, a composer of sad operatic tunes, and Robert Walter Weir, a painter of the Hudson River School famous for his landscapes.

 

Ulalume

Edgar Allan Poe 

The skies they were ashen and sober;
The leaves they were crisped and sere—
The leaves they were withering and sere;
It was night in the lonesome October
Of my most immemorial year:
It was hard by the dim lake of Auber,
In the misty mid region of Weir—
It was down by the dank tarn of Auber,
In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

Here once, through an alley Titanic,
Of cypress, I roamed with my Soul—
Of cypress, with Psyche, my Soul.
These were days when my heart was volcanic
As the scoriac rivers that roll—
As the lavas that restlessly roll
Their sulphurous currents down Yaanek
In the ultimate climes of the pole—
That groan as they roll down Mount Yaanek
In the realms of the boreal pole.

Our talk had been serious and sober,
But our thoughts they were palsied and sere—
Our memories were treacherous and sere,—
For we knew not the month was October,
And we marked not the night of the year
(Ah, night of all nights in the year!)—
We noted not the dim lake of Auber
(Though once we had journeyed down here)—
Remembered not the dank tarn of Auber,
Nor the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

And now, as the night was senescent
And star-dials pointed to morn—
As the star-dials hinted of morn—
At the end of our path a liquescent
And nebulous lustre was born,
Out of which a miraculous crescent
Arose with a duplicate horn—
Astarte's bediamonded crescent
Distinct with its duplicate horn.

And I said: "She is warmer than Dian;
She rolls through an ether of sighs—
She revels in a region of sighs:
She has seen that the tears are not dry on
These cheeks, where the worm never dies,
And has come past the stars of the Lion
To point us the path to the skies—
To the Lethean peace of the skies—
Come up, in despite of the Lion,
To shine on us with her bright eyes—
Come up through the lair of the Lion,
With love in her luminous eyes."

But Psyche, uplifting her finger,
Said: "Sadly this star I mistrust—
Her pallor I strangely mistrust:
Ah, hasten! —ah, let us not linger!
Ah, fly! —let us fly! -for we must."
In terror she spoke, letting sink her
Wings until they trailed in the dust—
In agony sobbed, letting sink her
Plumes till they trailed in the dust—
Till they sorrowfully trailed in the dust.

I replied: "This is nothing but dreaming:
Let us on by this tremulous light!
Let us bathe in this crystalline light!
Its Sybilic splendour is beaming
With Hope and in Beauty tonight!—
See!—it flickers up the sky through the night!
Ah, we safely may trust to its gleaming,
And be sure it will lead us aright—
We safely may trust to a gleaming,
That cannot but guide us aright,
Since it flickers up to Heaven through the night."

Thus I pacified Psyche and kissed her,
And tempted her out of her gloom—
And conquered her scruples and gloom;
And we passed to the end of the vista,
But were stopped by the door of a tomb—
By the door of a legended tomb;
And I said: "What is written, sweet sister,
On the door of this legended tomb?"
She replied: "Ulalume -Ulalume—
'Tis the vault of thy lost Ulalume!"

Then my heart it grew ashen and sober
As the leaves that were crisped and sere—
As the leaves that were withering and sere;
And I cried: "It was surely October
On this very night of last year
That I journeyed—I journeyed down here!—
That I brought a dread burden down here—
On this night of all nights in the year,
Ah, what demon hath tempted me here?
Well I know, now, this dim lake of Auber—
This misty mid region of Weir—
Well I know, now, this dank tarn of Auber,
This ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir."

The rest of your life is a long time,

  

and whether you know it or not, it’s being shaped right now. 

You can choose to blame your circumstances on fate,

 or bad luck, 

or bad choices,

 or you can fight back. 

Things aren’t always gonna be fair in the real world,

 that’s just the way it is. 

But for the most part, you get what you give.

 Let me ask you all a question;

 what’s worse, not getting everything you wished for or getting it all and finding out it’s not enough.

 The rest of your life is being shaped right now 

with the dreams you chase, 

the choices you make, 

and the person you decide to be.

 The rest of your life is a long time

 and the rest of your life starts right now.

 Either you say too much or you don’t say enough, and then they’re gone.

Live life for the moment because everything else is uncertain. 

Take advantage of what is right in front of you.

There’s nothing wrong with fairy tales. Everyone ends up happily ever after.

 What’s more important? 

What we become or how we become it?

 Someone once said that death is not the greatest loss in life. 

The greatest loss is what dies inside of us while we live. 

I could tell you who said it,

 but who the hell really cares.

 You have one chance, one life. 

And what you do with that is up to you

 Love is a wonderful thing. 

And it doesn’t knock much, 

so when it does, make sure to open the door.

 Death is not the greatest loss in life. 

The greatest loss is what dies inside of us while we live.

 Every song has a CODA, a final movement. 

Whether it fades out or crashes away, every song ends. 

Is that any reason not to enjoy the music? 

The truth is, there is nothing to be afraid of.

 It’s just life.

 Imagine a future moment in your life where all your dreams come true. 

You know it’s the greatest moment of your life 

and you get to experience it with one person. 

Who’s standing next to you?

 Sometimes  we waste our words and we waste our moments, 

and we don’t take the time to say the things that are in our hearts when we have the chance.

It’s hard when you miss people.

 

But you know if you miss them, that means you’re lucky. 

It means you had someone special in your life, someone worth missing.

 Because it’s only when you’re tested that you truly discover who you are.

 And it’s only when you’re tested that you discover who you can be. 

The person that you want to be does exist, 

somewhere on the other side of hard work and faith, 

and belief and beyond the heartache and fear of what life has.

if you look closer,

you might see someone like you or someone like you. 

Someone trying to find their way. 

Someone trying to find their place. 

Someone trying to find their self.

 Sometimes it seems like you are the only one in the world who’s struggling, who’s frustrated, unsatisfied, barely getting by. 

But that feeling’s a lie. 

And if you just hold on, just find the courage to face it all for another day, someone or something will find you and make it all OK.

 Because we all need a little help sometimes 

— someone to help us hear the music in their world, to remind us that it won’t always be this way. 

That someone is out there.

 And that someone will find you…

 

You ever look a picture of yourself and see a stranger in the background?. 

It makes you wonder how many strangers have pictures of you. 

How many moments of other people’s life have we been in. 

Were we a part of someone’s life when their dream came true or were we there when their dream died? 

Did we keep trying to get in? 

As if we were somehow destined to be there, 

or did the shot take us by surprise.

 Just think, you could be a big part of someone else’s life, and not even know it.

 You ever heard the expression ‘The best things in life are free’? 

Well, that expression is true.’ 

Every once in a while, people step up they rise above themselves sometimes they surprise you 

and sometimes they fall short.

 Life is funny sometimes. 

It can push pretty hard, 

but if you look close enough, you can find hope in the words of children, in the bars of the song, and in the eyes of someone you love. 

And if you’re lucky, if you’re the luckiest person on this entire planet, the person you love decides to love you back.

 

When life comes rushing at you out of the darkness, who will you choose to face it with?

 Will it be someone you trust? 

Will they be wise? 

And will their love for you help them to guide you to the light,

 or will they lose their way in the darkness? 

Will they make noble choices? 

Or will that person be untested, someone new?

 Life comes rushing at you from out of the darkness. 

When it does, is there someone in your life you can count on—

someone who will watch over you when you stumble and fall, 

and in that moment, give you the strength to face your fears alone?

 And once you lose yourself, you have two choices: 

find the person you used to be 

or lose that person completely.

 We spend so much time wanting, pursuing, wishing. 

But ambition is good, chasing things with integrity is good, dreaming. 

If you had a friend you knew you’d never see again, what would you say? 

If you could do one last thing for someone you love, what would it be? 

Say it. 

Do it. 

Don’t wait. 

Nothing lasts forever.

Happiness comes in many forms —

 

in the company of good friends, 

in the feeling you get when you make someone else’s dream come true, 

or in the promise of hope renewed. 

It’s OK to let yourself be happy

 because you never know how fleeting that happiness might be…

Make a wish and place it in your heart.

Anything you want, everything you want. 

Do you have it? 

Good. 

Now believe it can come true. 

You never know where the next miracle is gonna come from, the next smile, the next wish come true. 

But if you believe that it’s right around the corner, and you open your heart and mind to the possibility of it, to the certainty of it, you just might get the thing you’re wishing for. 

The world is full of magic. 

You just have to believe in it. 

So, make your wish. 

Do you have it?

 Good. 

Now, believe in it with all your heart…

 Sometimes pain becomes such a huge part of your life that you expect it to always be there. 

Because you can’t remember a time in your life when it wasn’t, 

but then one day you feel something else. 

Something that feels wrong, only because it’s so unfamiliar. 

Then, in that moment, you realize you’re happy.

Does this darkness have a name?

  This cruelty, this hatred, how did it find us? 

Did it steal into our lives, or did we seek it out and embrace it?

 What happened to us that we now send our children into the world like we send young men to war, hoping for their safe return, but knowing that some would be lost along the way. 

When did we lose our way? 

Consumed by the shadows. 

Swallowed whole by the darkness. 

Does this darkness have a name?

 Is it your name?

 

Do you ever wonder if we make the moments in our lives, 

or if the moments in our lives make us?

 

Every day we ignore how completely broken this world is and we tell ourselves it’s all going to be OK, 

you’re gonna be OK. 

But it’s not OK. 

And once you know that, there’s no going back.

don’t be afraid to make mistakes,

to stumble and fall, 

cause most of the time, the greatest rewards come from doing the things that scare you the most. 

Maybe you’ll get everything you wish for. 

Maybe you’ll get more than you ever could have imagined. 

Who knows where life will take you. 

The road is long and in the end, the journey is the destination.

 Every song ends — 

but is that any reason not to enjoy the music?

 

There are moments in our lives when we find ourselves at a crossroads, 

afraid, confused, without a roadmap. 

The choices we make in those moments can define the rest of our days.

 Of course, when faced with the unknown, most of us prefer to turn around and go back.

Do not let your fire go out,

 

Do not let your fire go out, 

spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swaps of the not quite, the not yet, and the not at all. 

Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. 

The world you desire can be won. 

It exists. 

It is real.

 It is possible.

 It is yours.

think about the finality of it all

 how somebody can leave your world in the blink of an eye and be gone forever. 

It’s too enormous to think about. 

It’s too hard. 

And then you’re just supposed to go on, just deal with it, 

 really you’re only supposed to be sad for as long as the flowers last 

and then, time to go back to telling jokes and reminiscing about the old days.

 

When your heart breaks, you got to fight like hell to make sure you’re still alive.

 Because you are. 

And that pain you feel? 

That’s life. 

The confusion and fear? 

That’s there to remind you, that somewhere out there is something better, 

and that something is worth fighting for.

It was a comet.

 

 The boy saw the comet, and he felt as though his life had meaning. 

And when it went away, he waited his entire life for it to come back to him. 

It was more than just a comet because of what it brought to his life: direction, beauty, meaning. 

There are many who couldn’t understand, and sometimes he walked among them. 

But even in his darkest hours, he knew in his heart that someday it would return to him, and his world would be whole again… 

And his belief in God and love and art would be re-awakened in his heart. 

The boy saw the comet and suddenly his life had meaning.

Most of our lives are a series of images

 

Most of our lives are a series of images, 

they pass us by like towns on a highway. 

But sometimes a moment stuns us as it happens, 

and we know that this instant is more than a fleeting image. 

We know that this moment, every part of it, will live on forever.

Learn to let go of the past.

 

The important thing is not to be bitter over life’s disappointments. 

Learn to let go of the past. 

And recognize that every day won’t be sunny, 

and when you find yourself lost in the darkness and despair, remember it’s only in the black of night you see the stars. 

And those stars will lead you back home.

The rest of your life

 

You can choose to blame your circumstances on fate or bad luck or bad choices. 

Or you can fight back. 

Things aren’t always going to be fair in the real world. 

That’s just the way it is. 

But for the most part, you get what you give. 

Rest of your life is being shaped right now. 

With the dreams you chase, the choices you make, and the person you decide to be. 

The rest of your life is a long time. 

And the rest of your life starts right now.