<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr"><span style="color: rgb(33, 33, 33); font-family: Lato; font-size: 2.75rem; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%;">Life Is a Privilege</span><div dir="ltr"><div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; background-color: white;">by Ella Wheeler Wilcox</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; background-color: white;"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; background-color: white;">Life is a privilege. Its youthful days</span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.15pt;"><br><span style="background-color: white;">Shine with the radiance of continuous Mays.</span><br><span style="background-color: white;">To live, to breathe, to wonder and desire,</span><br><span style="background-color: white;">To feed with dreams the heart’s perpetual fire,</span><br><span style="background-color: white;">To thrill with virtuous passions, and to glow</span><br><span style="background-color: white;">With great ambitions – in one hour to know</span><br><span style="background-color: white;">The depths and heights of feeling – God! in truth,</span><br><span style="background-color: white;">How beautiful, how beautiful is youth!</span><br><br><span style="background-color: white;">Life is a privilege. Like some rare rose</span><br><span style="background-color: white;">The mysteries of the human mind unclose.</span><br><span style="background-color: white;">What marvels lie in the earth, and air, and sea!</span><br><span style="background-color: white;">What stores of knowledge wait our opening key!</span><br><span style="background-color: white;">What sunny roads of happiness lead out</span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Beyond the realms of indolence and doubt!</span><br><span style="background-color: white;">And what large </span></span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><a href="https://inspirationfeed.com/simple-pleasures/" target="_blank" title="pleasures"><span style="color: blue; letter-spacing: 0.15pt; text-decoration: none;">pleasures</span></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0.15pt; background-color: white;"> smile upon and bless</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.15pt;"><br><span style="background-color: white;">The busy avenues of usefulness!</span><br><br><span style="background-color: white;">Life is a privilege. Thought the noontide fades</span><br><span style="background-color: white;">And shadows fall along the winding glades,</span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Though joy-blooms wither in the autumn air,</span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Yet the sweet scent of sympathy is there.</span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Pale sorrow leads us closer to our kind,</span><br><span style="background-color: white;">And in the serious hours of life we find</span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Depths in the souls of men which lend new worth</span><br><span style="background-color: white;">And majesty to this brief span of earth.</span><br><br><span style="background-color: white;">Life is a privilege. If some sad fate</span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Sends us alone to seek the exit gate,</span><br><span style="background-color: white;">If men forsake us and as shadows fall,</span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Still does the supreme privilege of all</span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Come in that reaching upward of the soul</span><br><span style="background-color: white;">To find the welcoming Presence at the goal,</span><br><span style="background-color: white;">And in the Knowledge that our feet have trod</span><br><span style="background-color: white;">Paths that led from, and must wind back, to God.</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><br></div>—————————————————<br><br><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">http://www.MoscowCares.net</span></div><div><br></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><br></div><div>“A stranger is just a friend you haven’t met.”</div><div>- Roy E. Stolworthy</div><div></div></div></div></div></body></html>