Some Timeless Words

A Creed
by Sharlot M. Hall
(October 27, 1870 – April 9, 1943)

Let others frame their creeds--mine is to work:
To do my best, however far it fall
Below the keener craft of stronger hands.
To be myself--full hearted, free and true
To what my own soul sees, below, above;
To think my thought straight-forward from the
Heart;
To feel and be, and never stop to ask:
"Do all men so? Is this the World's highway?"
To look unflinching in the face of life
As eagles look upon the noonday sun;
To cut my own path through primeval woods;
To lay my own course by the polar star
Across the trackless plains and mountains vast;
To seek, not follow, ever to the end.
And for the rest--bare-handed have I come
Into this world, I know not whence nor why;
Bare-handed and alone and unafraid,
With Heart of Fire and eyes that question still,
Will I go forth into the wide Beyond;
As went the men who bore my blood of old
To prove their dream of Heaven, or dare their
Hell.

Sharlot Hall is one of my heroes.
You can read about her by clicking here.
"A Creed" was printed 100 years ago in the 1910 "Cactus & Pine."
Sharlot had an October birthday, too. I hope CB encounters
Sharlot's words here on this blog and finds in them the strength and inspiration to Shine Brightly during her Birthday Month!

Cheers, jp