I Shall Not Pass This Way Again

"I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good thing,

therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any fellow human being let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again."

Stephen Grellet

I enjoy the statement above as well as the poem below.  I've always gotten reverberating feelings of goodness reading the statement by Grellet and I finally had to write about it.  It's such a masterful way of communicating the beautiful simplicity of everyday kindnesses.   I expect, as a Christian, that I have eternal life.  But life before death is full of "Sliding Doors" & "Serendipity" moments (see movie photos, both good ones).  Which road will you choose?  Your choices contribute to your destiny in this world, and in the life to come.  Will you stop to enjoy the best moments here?  Will you make the most out of your free time?  Will you laugh at yourself?  Cry when you need to? Feel beautiful even when the world tells you you are not? Acknowledge the effects of age and find the good in it?  Will you love someone who needs to be loved even when it isn't fun?  Will you give someone else the limelight?  Will you work hard as well as play hard?  Will you take time to smile at a lonely stranger (We are all that lonely stranger at times)? Will you follow through on commitments?  Brighten someone else's life? Share Christ with the world who so desperately needs Him?  

The poem below is simply enchanting.  This woman is sad that she has missed opportunities to love, has duly noted that she has been greedy and avoidant when others are in pain and now, as a dying woman dreadfully experiences what she has avoided.  She beckons others to follow her in loving others well.

"Although it bordered be with flowers,
Although I rest in fragrant bowers,
And hear the singing
Of song-birds winging
To highest heaven their gladsome flight;
Though moons are full and stars are bright,
And winds and waves are softly sighing,
While leafy trees make low replying;
Though voices clear in joyous strain
Repeat a jubilant refrain;
Though rising suns their radiance throw
On summer’s green and winter’s snow,
In such rare splendor that my heart
Would ache from scenes like these to part;
Though beauties heighten,
And life-lights brighten,
And joys proceed from every pain,-
I shall not pass this way again.
And let me listen as I go
To music rare
That fills the air;
And let hereafter
Songs and laughter
Fill every pause along the way;
And to my spirit let me say:
“O soul, be happy; soon ’tis trod,
The path made thus for thee by God.
Be happy thou, and bless His name
By whom such marvelous beauty came.”
And let no chance by me be lost
To kindness show at any cost.
I shall not pass this way again;
Then let me now relieve some pain,
Remove some barrier from the road,
Or brighten some one’s heavy load;
A helping hand to this one lend,
Then turn some other to befriend.
That now I live
As if I might, sometime, return
To bless the weary ones that yearn
For help and comfort every day,-
For there be such along the way.
O God, forgive that I have seen
The beauty only, have not been
Awake to sorrow such as this;
That I have drunk the cup of bliss
Remembering not that those there be
Who drink the dregs of misery.
Would roam again o’er fields so green;
But since I may not, let me spend
My strength for others to the end,-
For those who tread on rock and stone,
And bear their burdens all alone,
Who loiter not in leafy bowers,
Nor hear the birds nor pluck the flowers.
A larger kindness give to me,
A deeper love and sympathy;
Then, O, one day
May someone say-
Remembering a lessened pain-
“Would she could pass this way again.”

~ Eva Rose York


Got it, doing it, loving it.