Earth, teach me to be louder than an
elephant so my teacher can hear me.

Earth, help me to jump like a kangaroo
so I can jump better than everyone.

Earth, teach me to slither like a snake
so I can go wherever I want.

Earth, teach me to be like a lion
so I can rule the world.

Earth, teach me to be a tree
so I can be calm.

by Melanie, 3rd grade

[photo by Andrew Hollander via flickr]

And If fate would not make you any,

Then be just the soil maybe.

A fertile soil where seeds

Of herbs and weeds

And shrubs and trees would grow.

              .

 Somehow, you would live in them;

You will bring them life ~

Becoming the best that you could be.

~

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michaelangelo painted or Beethoven posed music or shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here live a great street sweeper who did his job so well. ~ Martin Luther King

~

And when I die strew my dust-remains in the earth so trees may grow.

—

This week, the http://writersisland.wordpress.com prompts us to write about Persistence. I think this is how it should be.