~What I Live For~

I live for those who love me,
Whose hearts are kind and true;
For the Heaven that smiles above me,
And awaits my spirit too;
For the human ties that bind me,
For the task by God assigned me,
For the bright hopes yet to find me,
And the good that I can do.

I live to learn their story
Who suffered for my sake;
To emulate their glory,
And follow in their wake;
Bards, patriots, martyrs, sages,
The heroic of all ages,
Whose deeds crowd History’s pages,
And Time’s great volume make.

I live to hold communion
With all that is divine,
To feel there is a union
‘Twixt Nature’s heart and mine;
To profit by affliction,
Reap truth from fields of fiction,
Grow wiser from conviction,
And fulfill God’s grand design.

I live to hail the season
By gifted ones foretold,
When men shall live by reason,
And not alone by gold;
When man to man united,
And every wrong thing righted,
The whole world shall be lighted
As Eden was of old.

I live for those who love me,
For those who know me true,
For the Heaven that smiles above me,
And awaits my spirit too;
For the cause that lacks assistance,
For the wrong that needs resistance,
For the future in the distance,
And the good that I can do.

~~George Linnaeus Banks




This poem was written in the 1800's but I find it fits who I am becoming so very well now. I am seeing myself; the life around me change so much. Think I might make it a "wallpaper" for my monitor so I can read it daily. ;)
Just thought I would share. I hope you like it too.