Of Courage, College and Carrying On...

We speak to them of courage and we hope within its speech

We find the very thing that we are striving thus to teach

Life’s laughter and lament, love’s learning-curves amalgamate

Within the eye; hello-good-bye; time never bars its gate

As daughters become us and we stare long at our skin

And wonder who we are; the image not the girl within

Where dying ways that life inflicts upon our gaze reflects

The nature of all nature and the climax of all flesh

Our lips, once filled with answers suddenly are dumb and numb

While merry moment-dancers seem to disregard the sum

Of all that they become as we peruse their aftermath

Where tragedy and triumph meld in glimmers on dusk’s path

Still, onward, ever onward, we commence again, again

The learning is not over until God declares, Amen

And so we speak of courage and we hope within its speech

To find the very thing that we are striving thus to teach

© Janet Martin

Our pastor, Dale Ward, encouraged students to take this verse with them as they return to school...

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9

From Tennyson's Tears, Idle Tears...

 Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather in the eyes,
In looking on the happy autumn-fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more...