Have a wonderful day

By Israel Belo de Azevedo

This is a book for those who enjoy the English language.
Besides offering some of texts by Israel Belo de Azevedo, there is a selection of valuable texts (in prose and poetry) of great English authors, starting with one of the founders of the language (Julian of Norwich), through William Shakespeare to Walt Whitman.
The entire book is organized around 12 key words presented as being critical to our growth as people, since becoming person is a process.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Editora Prazer da Palavra
• Release date: Jan 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9786589202134

Book preview

© Israel Belo de Azevedo, 2021

All rights reserved to

EDITORA PRAZER DA PALAVRA

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

ISBN: 978-65-89202-13-4

Author and publisher:

Israel Belo de Azevedo, PhD

Translators and revisors:

Felipe Botelho Alves Fusco, Adriano Azevedo da Silveira, Esther N. De Souza De Lima, Marta Spinola, Carlos Daniel de Campos, Maria Lina Pereira e Silva, Alessandra Avila Amaral, Anielle de Souza, Paula Decotelli Ferraz, Rawderson Rangel, Abigail Neves, Augusto Salles, Carlos Leão, Lecio Dornas, Meredith Kashti.

Photos:

Rachel Vieira Belo de Azevedo

Design:

Leila Simões

〈www.prazerdapalavra.com.br〉

Dear friend:

This is a book for those who enjoy the English language.

Besides offering some of my texts aimed at a quality life, translated by friends, I made a selection – and the selection was a marvelous adventure – of valuable texts (in prose and poetry) of great English authors, starting with one of the founders of the language (Julian of Norwich), through William Shakespeare to Walt Whitman.

The entire book is organized around 12 key words presented as being critical to our growth as people, since becoming person is a process.

I hope HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY is part of this process that is painful and beautiful.

Warm greetings.

Israel Belo de Azevedo, PhD

IN TIME - The selection of authors contemplated only the authors already in the public domain.

Summary

» Journey

» Triumph

» Learning

» Choices

» Love

» Solidarity

» Hope

» Perseverance

» Self-Care

» Courage

» Wisdom

» Grace

» Keywords

One ship drives east and another drives west

With the selfsame winds that blow.

Tis the set of the sails

And not the gales

Which tells us the way to go.

Like the winds of the seas are the ways of fate,

As we voyage along through the life:

Tis the set of a soul

That decides its goal,

And not the calm or the strife.

(Ella Wheeler Wilcox)

John Bunyan

(1628-1688)

About himself, John Bunyan wrote:

" I am no poet, nor a poet’s son

But a mechanic, guided by no rule

But what I gained in a grammar school,

In my minority ".

The Pilgrim

(John Bunyan)

Who would true Valour see

Let him come hither;

One here will Constant be,

Come Wind, come Weather.

There’s no Discouragement,

Shall make him once Relent,

His first avow’d Intent,

To be a Pilgrim.

Who so beset him round,

With dismal Storys,

Do but themselves Confound;

His Strength the more is.

No Lyon can him fright,

He’l with a Gyant Fight,

But he will have a right,

To be a Pilgrim.

Hobgoblin, nor foul Fiend,

Can daunt his Spirit:

He knows, he at the end,

Shall Life Inherit.

Then Fancies fly away,

He’l fear not what men say,

He’l labour Night and Day,

To be a Pilgrim. (1684)

The first hour of the morning is the rudder of the day. (Harriet Beecher-Stowe)

Every morning

Every morning a new day comes wrapped in gift-wrap.

Every morning life is renewed like a gift.

Every morning the night recognizes its defeat and victory reaches us, perhaps even when we do not fight for it.

Every morning a bridge is built before us to be crossed because on the other side there are still further dreams.

Every morning has a story to tell about a night full of boredom and agony, or full of peace and joy. We should not imagine that every person had the same night as we did, but all of us may have the day we need by starting every morning.

Every morning has a schedule to be followed, in case it had not been followed the day before: a song to be sung, a house to be cleaned, a city to be known, some food to be cooked, some courage to be wielded, a distance to be covered, some hope to be believed, a fight to be fought, a goal to be met, a need close to be met, a book to be read or written, a pray to be made, a friendly word to be kindly said, a play to be applauded, a physical necessity to be listened to, a seed to be sowed, a task – either pleasant or unpleasant – to be done, a tragedy to be forgotten, a canvas to be colored, a trip to be enjoyed.

We can cheerfully make a loving experience out of each one of its hours.

We can look attentively at every daily experience as a well-lived story.

The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities. (Stephen Covey)

The Art Of Expectations

We have expectations about everything we do.

We go on trips, sometimes to distant places and paying expensive prices, because we have expectations.

We get married because we feel in love, but also because we have expectations about our lives after saying yes.

We decide to have children from that moment we create expectations to them and to ourselves, in the present and in the future.

We start a course because of the expectations about the imagined outcomes for our careers.

We even have expectations about the friends we make.

We have expectations when we read or when we write a book, when we listen to or when we compose a song, when we listen to or when we give a piece of advice.

Our expectations may be modest (as when we say have a nice day to someone) or great (as when we ask someone we’ve hurt for forgiveness).

We know that our expectations are partially or totally met, or that they are simply not met at all.

Still, we do nothing without expectations. It would be difficult doing all the things we have to do every day if we did not believe they are worth being done.

If we must have expectations, we should not create them depending on others, nor should we hang them on the chest of others. These are usually cases that end up in disappointment.

We will do fine if we formulate our expectations by taking reality into account, which cannot be ignored even when we want to overcome it. Expectations and fantasy are different things.

We should be ready, also, for the circumstances that may change the course of our desires. There is no problem in this: life is dynamic.

We should consider ourselves successful if, upon having expectations, we do all we can to make them real (Ecclesiastes 9.10). Doing all we can depends only on us.

The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things. (Henry Ward Beecher)

Chapters we write

Some centuries before we were born we were already prone to disease or we were marked for strength. Dozens of years before the primordial pat on the buttocks, was inscribed as we would walk. The way our parents deal with money was already our way of relating to the means of paying or being happy. We reproduce the way our grandparents faced their challenges. Therefore, we are born having before us three alternatives, among others: we stamp everything as if it was our life; we refuse to receive all inheritances or we are making changes to the script.

In our uniqueness, we carry traits that precede us and we are making marks that accompany us. We are not just remnants of smoke, we can be the fire. We are not just crumpled paper, we can be a new sheet. We are not an orange with worms, we can be clean products. We are not cattle in the yard, we can be the cowboy.

In the face of the legacies (of yesterday) and the influences (of today), to the sound of today’s clashes, we are giving contour to our muscles. The story we write is our story. We may not get the first chapter, but we have the power to change the