Poem in the Movie Invictus

Background

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Invictus

At the age of 12, Henley became a victim of tuberculosis of the bone. A few years later the disease progressed to his foot, and physicians announced that the only way to save his life was to amputate directly below the knee. In 1867 he would successfully pass the Oxford local examination as a senior student. In 1875 he wrote the "Invictus" poem from a hospital bed. Despite his disability, he survived with one foot intact and led an active life until the age of 53.

Text

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of fate
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years finds
And shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

At What Point?

At what point do you leave

And say "Enough is enough!"

Without it seeming like abandonment

Or like you're going in a huff?

I wish I knew the answer

Of why I need to go

But time has changed me

And God has sent out

His beckoning call

Toward something that

In the long run

Is better for us all

2009 Reads

JANUARY

1. Silas Marner by George Eliot
2. River of Doubt:Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey
3. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
4. "Civil Disobedience" by Thoreau
5. Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington
6. A History of US: Liberty for All?
7. "A Good Man is Hard to Find"
8. Papa's Wife
9. Job
10. Song of Solomon
11. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
FEBRUARY
12. Reflections on the Life of the Spirit13. The Twin Manifestations
14. Walden
15. Ecclesiastes
16. No Exit by Sartre
17. St. Joan by Bernard Shaw
18. Our Town by Thornton Wilder
19. Long Day's Journey into Night by O'Neill
MARCH
20. A Streetcar Named Desire
21. The Misery of Job & the Mercy of God
22. Mudhouse Sabbath
23. Murder in the Cathedral
24. Sartre in 90 Minutes
25. Death of a Salesman
26. Waiting for Godot
27. Uncle Tom's Cabin
28. The Blessing of Friendship
29. Equus
30. War, Terrible War: A History of US
31. 1 Chronicles
32. Proverbs
33. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
APRIL34. "The Telltale Heart"
35. "The Raven"
36. Battle Cry of Freedom
37. Obadiah
38. Jonah
39. A History of US: Reconstructing America40. "Bartleby,the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street"
41. Joel

MAY
42. Les Miserables
43. Amos
44. Hosea
45. Confessions of Rousseau
46. 2 Chronicles
47. Final Harvest: Poems of Emily Dickinson (parts)
48. The Courtship of Miles Standish by Longfellow
49. The Song of Hiawatha by Longfellow
50. The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus (Avila)

JUNE

51. Souls of Black Folk by DuBois

52. Greek Lives by Plutarch

52. The Alchemist by Paul Coelho

53. Roman Lives by Plutarch

JULY

54. City of God by Augustine

55. Selkirk's Island: The True and Strange Adventures of the Real Robinson Crusoe (7.5)

56. Isaiah

57. The Ecclesiastical History of the English People

58. The Greater Chronicle

59. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

60. Psalms

61. Micah

62. Nahum

AUGUST

63. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

64. Zephaniah

65. My Life in France

66. Wesley the Owl (very cute)

67. Julie and Julia (only got to p. 95)

68. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas

69. Leaves of Grass (selections) by Whitman

70. The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar(selections)

71. Frost: Collected Poems, Prose, and Plays (selections)

73. The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg (selections)

74. The Voice of the Poet: Allen Ginsberg (selections) YUCK!

75. Selected Poems by Rita Dove

76. Otherwise: New and Selected Poems by Jane Kenyon

77/78. The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams: Volumes 1 & 2 (selections)

79. The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems by Robert Pinsky (selections)

80. Selected Poems by Mark Strand

81. Allen Ginsberg Poetry Collection (selections)

82. Collected Early Poems: 1950-1970 by Adrienne Rich (selections)

83. The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes (selections)

84. The Voice of the Poet: Sylvia Plath (selections)

85. The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath (selections)

86. Selected Poems of Ezra Pound (selections)

87. The Waste Land, Prufrock and Other Poems by T.S. Eliot

88. Selected Poems of John Donne

SEPTEMBER

89. Much Ado About Nothing

90. The Perfect Leader

91. What I Thought I Knew

92. Jeremiah

93. Lamentations

94. Habbakuk

OCTOBER

95. Daniel

96. Wuthering Heights (Book Dames)

97. Haggai

98. The Life You've Always Wanted: Spiritual Disciplines for Ordinary People

NOVEMBER

99. Ezekiel

100. Letters by a Modern Mystic by Frank Laubach (favorite!)

101. As You Like It

102. Zechariah

I read sections of 103-115 since October 2008:

103. Be Restored: 2 Samuel & 1 Chronicles

104. Be Distinct: 2 Kings & 2 Chronicles

105. Be Patient: Job

106. Be Skillful: Proverbs

107. Be Satisfied: Ecclesiastes

108. Be Comforted: Isaiah

109. Be Decisive: Jeremiah

110. Be Reverent: Ezekiel

111. Be Resolute: Daniel

112. Be Concerned: Amos, Obadiah, Micah, Zephaniah

113. Be Heroic: Haggai, Zechariah, Ezra

114. Be Amazed: Hosea, Joel, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Malachi

115. Be Determined: Nehemiah

116. Malachi (Done with the Old Testament!)

117. The Bible Knowledge Commentary: OT by Walvoord and Zuck

DECEMBER

118. The Divine Conspiracy (finally!)

119. Matthew (in the New Testament now!!)

120. Mark

121. Luke

122. John

2009 Movies and Documentaries

It is time, once again, for a documentation of all the movies and documentaries I watched this year. I watched a good bit of them in December when I was infirm!

JANUARY

1. George Eliot - Famous Authors
2. Sylvia (Plath)
3. Tess of the D'Urbervilles
4. Frederick Douglass Biography
5. Walden Documentary
6. Ballykissangel: Season Two
FEBRUARY
7. Doubt (wow!)
8. The Visitor
9. Daniel Deronda
10. Silas Marner (w/Ben Kingsley)
11. American Experience: Eugene O'Neill
MARCH
12. Slumdog Millionaire (WOW!)
13. Amazing Grace (1 1/2 x rewatch)
14. Ballykissangel: Season Three
15. The Better Hour: The Legacy of William Wilberforce
16. Long Day's Journey Into Night
17. Mark Twain by Ken Burns
18. The Last Legion (Colin F!)
APRIL
19. Expelled (about Intelligent Design)
20. A Room with a View (newer version)

MAY
21. Les Miserables
22. 17 Again

JUNE

23. Great American Authors Since 1650 (4 DVD's)

24. The Tell-Tale Heart

25. Famous Authors: Emily Dickinson

26. Great Russian Writers: Fyodor Dostoevsky

27. Lars and the Real Girl

28. The Thief of Bagdad (1940)

29. UP

30. The Lion Has Wings (1940 War Propaganda)

31. Mansfield Park (2007 Masterpiece)

32. Savages

33. Return to Me

34. Death at a Funeral
35. The Last of the Mohicans

36. Enchanted April (I forgot how much I love this)

37. Benny and Joon (quirky Johnny Depp - loved it!)

38. Music Within (great biopic)

JULY

39. Ballykissangel: Season Four

40. Ballykissangel: Season Five

41. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason

42. Facing the Giants

43. Ballykissangel: Season Six

44. The Proposal

AUGUST

45. A&E Biography: Julia Child

46. Julie and Julia (see my review here)

47. American Experience: Walt Whitman

48. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

49. Pride and Prejudice (Kiera Knightly)

SEPTEMBER

50. Cry, the Beloved Country (beautiful!)

51. Ladies in Lavendar (slow and sweet)

52. The Gathering Storm (HBO Biopic on Churchill)

53. Reign Over Me (edited for TV)

54. Much Ado About Nothing

55. Fiddler on the Roof (only half!)

OCTOBER

56. Anne of Green Gables

57. Anne of GG: The Sequel

58. Anne of GG: The Continuing Story

59. Capitalism: A Love Story (SO manipulative!)

NOVEMBER

60. As You Like It

61. Lost in Austen (hilarious with off humor I didn't get)

62. Tales from Avonlea: First Season Highlights

63. Wuthering Heights (1998)

64. Much Ado About Nothing

DECEMBER

65. The Best of Youth

66. The Blindside

67. Wuthering Heights (2009)

68. As You Like It (with Brit Lit class)

69. Grey Gardens (loved it!)

70. Into the Storm

71. Grey Gardens Documentary

72. Road to Avonlea: Season I

73. Never Been Kissed

74. Music and Lyrics

75. Phantom of the Opera

76. Mama Mia

77. Havana Nights

78. The Muppet Christmas Carol

79. It's a Wonderful Life

80. 13 Going on 30

81. High School Musical 1

82. High School Musical 2

83. High School Musical 3

84. Away from Her (excellent on Alzheimer's)

85. Chocolat

86. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (TV)

87. The Nanny Diaries

88. Anne of Green Gables

89. Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel

Fellow Traveler

Fellow Traveler by Ginny Owens

You can't change who I am
Or the way that i think
I won't change how you live
Or the words that you speak
But neither of us is a stranger to joy or pain
No matter how we're different
We're very much the same

Chorus:
Fellow traveler let me take you to a place where I've found rest
Fellow seeker let me show you where I've found true happiness
Fellow beggar I have good news, I know where there is bread
(I'll show you where there's bread)

I don't know where you've come from
Or where you've been along your way
But I can tell you what I've lived through
And how I made it here today
Let me share with you the story of hope I've come to know
A love that's always for me
And a peace that frees my soul

Chorus:

So if you are hungry come to the table with me
And you won't go hungry ever again

Relief

The muscles relax as the he masterfully works with tension and release exercises

The hands glide and push back and forth

Infirm

I recline on heat and ice

With pain killers, muscle relaxants,

And anti-inflammatories coursing

Through my body

As muscles spasm out of control

With every movement

There is pain

Yet, my heart soars

Despite being sore

The spirit can go to places Divine

In the midst of the pain

That transcend this temporal world

And ground us to what is truly important

And eternal in this life

Our bodies waste away

But our spirits will rise on the last day

Audrey Assad - My new favorite artist!

Audrey Assad - Love is Moving - Cornerstone Chandler - Worship from brianwurzell on Vimeo.

Tear Day

It seems that today is a tear day

One little thing set me down a path

Cleansed by salt water

Running down the cheeks

Over a six hour span

I'm spent

Yet refreshed

Authenticity accepted

Validated

Understood

From caring hearts

Outstretched over the telephone line

This Made Me Laugh This Morning

I'm a "Realist-Optimist" What are you?

The Delight of an Hour

I delight in the last hour

Talking to teenage sponges

About the effect of advertising

On the human psyche

Seeing the percent change

In their "mock stocks"

Explaining the function

Of an extensor tendon

On a big right toe

Progress made through

Sir Gawain's vocabulary

Eyes engaged - Love exchanged

Tea sipped from great-grandma's

English tea cups

A delicious hour

Savored until the last minute

Drops

Emergencies

One thing after another

Little emergencies and big

Isaac has an emergency appendectomy

Steve's dad dies suddenly

I cut my extensor tendon for my big toe

People rushing to care for their fellow man

The ebb and flow of this mass of humanity

With individual needs and fears

The mass becomes each lone heart

And we must care

We must touch

We must strive to go outside of ourselves

To hug the collective whole one heart at a time

Without this we die as a people

Annie Barrows | Borders Media

Annie Barrows | Borders Media

From my touch!

School and Dave Ramsey Finance Class

I love being more at home this year. Even though I am not constantly looking over my kids' shoulder during school, I am there when they need me. Sometimes they do not, sometimes they do.

Today they are taking the Dave Ramsey Finance Class Chapter 4 Test on debt. Michael already did it and got a 90%. Paul is still taking it. I REALLY like that class and highly recommend it to all home schoolers, AND their parents. I wouldn't let any kids graduate without this class. It is that important and probably the most practical class they will take.

http://www.daveramsey.com/school/

New Heights!

Carol Ann Weaver reports that Paul (almost 15) is 6' 4 3/4" and Michael Weaver (17) is 6' 5 5/8". George Weaver is ONLY 6' 4 1/2"! I come in a dismal 4th place at 6' 2 1/4".

St. Teresa of Avila Quote

Let nothing disturb thee,
Nothing afright thee.
All things are passing,
God never changeth.
Patient endurance
Attaineth to all things.
Who God possesseth
In nothing is wanting . . .
Alone God sufficeth.

The Holy Spirit Tingle

In the busy-ness of my life, I am suddenly aware that the house is totally empty because Paul is at Ultimate, George took Michael to watch Paul and walk home with him, and George is going to Faruz's house to help him move Khairol and Noorul's couch.

I really wanted to help, but I my back is whack again for some reason. Maybe it is so I can be home here all alone and yet not alone. I feel You within and around me.

Thank You!

Sunday Morning Muse

I woke up at 1:15 and could not go back to sleep. I had great time with God in Daniel 4. Now, I am listening to a Teaching Company audio about The English Language and Literature. I listened to a recording of "The Battle of Malden," and it made me wish that I could call my mom and tell her that Old English sounds so much like Swedish!

I know for the last couple of years of her life, she would have not really understood what I was trying to say, but it would have been nice this morning.

So, I thought I would muse on that for a bit.

I am tired, Lord. I had a very good Shabbat Retreat, and I was rested going into it and rested during it, but my lack of sleep last night has made me very tired. :(

So, hopefully, I will get a nap.

Teaching Textbooks is the BOMB!

I have had the Teaching Textbooks Algebra II for a year now, and I have been chomping at the bit to use it. It is so COMPLETE!

Michael took his first closed book exam, and he got a 92%. He was correcting some homework in Chapter 2 today, and I asked him how he compares it to Bob Jones University Math - Is is more or less work? Harder or easier?

His response: "It seems like it takes more time to watch the lecture and understand the concepts, but the problems are easier, and you get more out of it. Also, If you get something wrong, they explain the concept."

There are also less lessons overall with 130 for the whole year. At this rate, he will be able to finish it before spring break.

The switch was worth it then! I am going to have Michael retake the Algebra Placement Exam at LBCC when he is done with Algebra II. I know he will do better.

So, It is two thumbs up for Algebra II, and I think I am going to switch Paul to it for Geometry. I am excited!

I might even switch him to Algebra I right now!