If you compare yourself to others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater

and
lesser persons than yourself.
Truly, vain and bitter are effects of too much comparison with each others, so we should stop doing so. We
should be contented with the things we have in life. We shouldnt compare ourselves to others because we have our
own individual stories. We are the writers of our own book. We are the dictator of our own faith. Comparison between
each other is indeed wrong for we are born to improve ourselves without causing any harm to others, neither having
harm from them.
With all its sham drudgery and broken dreams; it is still a beautiful world. BE CHEERFUL. STRIVE TO
BE HAPPY.
It gives us the thought of being optimistic the idea of solutions to problems, the hope to stand up after downfalls.
It tells us that even there are many trials which we face in our lives, courage, trust and faith will make us enough to fight
against it. God has His own plans for each one of is. He will never give any challenge that we couldnt hurdle. He will not
give us sorrows that we cant handle. He will never bestow us sadness without our power to convert them to smiles. We
shouldnt lose hope but instead, we need to be cheerful enough and be persevering enough. In this, we could better
persons, and soon, the best persons that would occupy this world given to us.
1st Stanza: Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
What does the line invoke? It invokes a chaotic, stressful world that we have to contend with every single day while we
are alive. Then we are reminded that to obtain peace in the midst of the chaos and stress, we can try solitude.
2nd stanza: As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly
and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and
aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit.
Simply understood, it talks about tact and diplomacy; compassion and empathy. It also warns us to choose our company
wisely.
3rd stanza: If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater
and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real
possession in the changing fortunes of time.
I love this stanza. It is very straightforward, direct and totally endearing. Comparison will really bring us nowhere. It can
lead to jealousy and bitterness especially in people who keep their insecurities and inadequacies hidden very well.
Some people will always be greater than us. Its a fact of life. We had better accept that right here and now.
It says enjoy your achievements but keep your feet planted on the ground. It is true: humility is a real possession both in
good times and bad. You become rich, you stay humble; you go through some tough time; you stay humble. Its a
winner.
4th stanza: Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you
to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself.
Especially do not feign affection.
The heart of this stanza is simply: Be yourself. Do not pretend. Do not play a role. Be real. But at the same time, be
discerning and intuitive in your professional and personal dealings.
It also reminds us that the world is full of big and little heroes. We can derive inspiration from them.
5th stanza: Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as
the grass.
Now this stanza is totally a lesson for all of us to learn. For after all, dont we all turn cynical when in a love relationship
we get hurt? We get jaded; callous; and cynical. We say romance is overrated and stuff like that.
Desiderata tells us that love is as perennial as the grass. What a beautiful analogy.
6th stanza: Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength
of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are
born of fatigue and loneliness.
Wisdom. This stanza talks about wisdom that we obtain as we sail on in our life journeys. When we have transitioned
from youth to adulthood, we would also have developed mental and emotional toughness and strength of character.
It counsels us not to focus on the negative things in life.

7th stanza: Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less
than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the
universe is unfolding as it should.
This is the stanza that I love the most. Be gentle with yourself. A very gentle reminder that we should always take care
of ourselves; that we do not neglect ourselves and take us for granted; not to be too harsh on ourselves. We ought to
be the very first people to love ourselves so we are able to love others.
And since God created you, you have the right to be here. And because you are, you are witness to the many wondrous
things that God has caused the universe to unfold for everyone.
8th stanza: Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and
aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.
The stanza best explains it. It is crystal clear. Whatever we go through in life, we know whom to anchor. Do you know
whom to anchor?
9th stanza: With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be
happy.
Yes, with lifes unfairness and broken dreams dont we all experience that? it is still a beautiful world. We may not see
the beauty at times, but it truly is. So we must keep the cheerful disposition and strive to be happy.

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,

and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
How hard it is not to get caught up in the chaos of everyday life, the rushing, the needless spending and eating, the petty
arguments and fights, the worry and panic that the news provokes, the drama and gossip that reality tv incites. How
hard it is not to add our two cents to the negative conversation, to not share the gossip or to not strike out or back with
our words.
The more we could practise stillness and curbing our tongue, the more we could respond rather than reacting and
express every single emotion, the more inner peace we could have. Our inner peace would grow and grow and bless
others.
How used to planning our next response, or checking text messages, rather than listening when someome speaks to us.
How often do we miss hearing something important or lovely? How often does a child, or partner or parent or friend
walk away not feeling heard? How often do we hear the words, or some of them, and end up not getting the true
message. How often do we ignore or reply dismissively to someone who is different to us, who we think is boring or
weird or dorky? What about a person who is dressed differently, or of another race or religion, do we already have a
judgement on them before we know their story?
What if we could listen with all of our concentration and an open heart? How would our life and our world change?

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,

they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Sometimes we cant physically avoid loud and aggressive people, you may live with one, work with one, they can be
everywhere, at the supermarket, on the train, even blaring out of the radio or television.
Mentally being able to avoid noise or agression is my aim. How? Daydream, go within, practise mindfullness,
concentrate on breathing deeply, strive to attract peace and positivity by emitting peace and positivity. Above all, try not
to let aggression or anything said to you or about you that is negative affect your mood or how you feel about yourself.
Find a way not to take it personally.
Not letting anothers opinion drag you down takes self-esteem. If we have a belief of not being enough, then the words
and actions of others will matter too much. Without anyone saying a word, without even knowing someone we can feel
inadequate because their life seems better. Even when think we are better than someone else, it is our lack of self-esteem
trying to boost itself. If we compare ourselves to others, when someone is always better off or worse off, we will never
measure up. It is a judgement of them too.
Self-esteem is accepting the way we are right now, strengths and weaknesses, and still being able to set goals for
improvement, and strive for these goals honourably. We can take pleasure in our strengths and achievements in a
gracious manner. False modesty does not show gratitude for our gifts and blessings. We accept ourselves and others as
worthy when we have a healthy self-esteem.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Your career is whatever you do in your daily life and whatever that may be is important. A parent who stays at home
and cares for the family and house, a person who serves at the deli counter and helps and infirm parent with their meals
and laundry, a bank manager, a teacher- it is all useful and necessary and if we see it that way and put in our best effort it
is blessed work.
Take care that you are treated fairly, you are deserving of your rights. Know your business, your finances, the legal rights
regarding your employer or your landlord,etc, and also your personal rights. Protect yourself and stand up for yourself.
If you can find worth in yourself and your daily tasks, you will have the self esteem to ensure you are treated fairly and
well.
Still trust in others who show they honour you. We need the help and support of others, it is a great gift to give and
recieve help. If you look for the good in people and are open to their grace, you will often find it. Most people are good
hearted and giving, a crisis shows us this. When a community hears of a family facing health or financial troubles, or if

there is a natural disaster we see the human spirit rally in its basic need for connection to others and the urge to ease the
suffering of others, and people feel compelled to help in anyway they can. Many people have been in the position of
giving more than they can afford, or even risking their safety for the sake of helping a fellow human. Seek goodness and
acknowledge it. Accept goodwill and give it too.
Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.
Be yourself? Who are you? Who am I?
If you have been a people pleaser, one who gives in to keep the peace, one who is too shy or scared to go against the
crowd, you may not be sure who you are and what you stand for, what your strengths are and where your faults lie. You
may not know your self until you stop with the automatic yess and think what do I think about this? and what do I
want? and then follow through on that and whatever consequence that brings.
You may have everyone thinking that everything is o.k or the relationship is going along just fine or what they say and do
is perfectly acceptable because you put on a happy face and take it.
If you let every mistreatment slide, if you do things against your will, or just go with the flow constantly without ever
asserting you needs and wants, then you are not showing much faith in yourself or others. It shows lack of self-esteem
and insecurity about accepting yourself and your needs and opinions as important. It shows lack of faith in others in that
you think they wont like you if you are not compliant or are different or even an imperfect human.
Maybe if you show yourself more genuinely, some people wont agree with you, or wont like you. The people who are
happy being pleased at your expense are draining and probably not so giving of themselves to you, and will probably
move on when the free ride stops, or their ego is not being massaged.
The people who truly love and/or respect you will find a way to accept you and support you as you really are, and you
will know who you can trust and rely upon. To believe this is possible will help you lower your defenses and find your
authentic self and show it. To find relationships with people who offer this acceptance and to find unconditional love are
lifes most valuable treasures.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
Hopefully, as we grow older we will have some wisdom and have learnt from our mistakes- or maybe not! Maybe we
keep making mistakes and misjudgments, maybe it is immaturity and the way the young have the luxury of thinking they
are immortal. When we are young we can fantasize about a perfect life, neglect ourselves and our loved ones and take
risks with a more blase attitude. With a little age,experience and wisdom we know that life is short and impermanent.
Some times there is no second chance, no do-overs and all things, good and bad will pass.

Knowing the concept This too shall pass is a good mantra to strengthen your spirit when things seem too hard and to
remind yourself to enjoy the good times while they last. This realisation brings us back to the moment, as it IS, not with
worry and anxiety over what might happen and how things could get worse. We could think about what we are
experiencing right now with gratitude, as maybe things could be better but they could be worse. We can see that we can
handle this moment and then handle the next, as it comes. Oh, grant me this wisdom!
I will have to be patient with myself for being a slow learner and so sensitive and anxious. I will continue to take baby
steps along the path and keep my eyes on the path. Being gentle with ourselves is hard. We often are more forgiving of
others than we are of ourselves. I think that looking at our mistakes and faults with a little objectivity rather than beating
ourselves up may be the key to learning from our mistakes and breaking negative patterns.
Finding some peace with ourselves and some peace of mind means we can look forward, improve ourselves while
accepting ourselves.

You are a child of the universe,

no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.
If each of us is a child of the universe, and the happenings of the universe are unfolding as they should,
then we are here for a purpose and the things that happen in our lives must happen for a reason. To
make peace with the fact that we are important and our blessings and hardships are occurring as they
should is to make peace with God or a higher power,instead of asking Why me?
Why do I have so much and others so little?
Why is my life so hard?
Why did my child get sick?
Maybe it is the tone of the questioning that makes all the difference. With trust that our life has a
purpose, we can ask Why me? with a heart open to learning a lesson or using my experience to help
another person. Maybe there will be no answer that we will ever find-in this lifetime, yet, we can trust
there is a higher purpose to our lives.
When we can use our life experiences in a positive manner and not continue on in guilt or shame or fear,
we can then make the peace with our soul that allows us to be content and happy. We can then see
beauty in the world, in abundance and simple pleasues, in plans gone awry that end up being the right
path anyway, even in suffering and pain and its gift of compassion. Looking for the purpose,the beauty,
the faintest glimmer of a silver lining is an effort that can bring peace and happiness.