It’s nice have the same birthday, April 23rd, as The Bard. In his honor, here is my annual April Shakespeare selection. May we always act compassionately, and exercise fidelity to our true selves, less our “Lilies” fester and decay.
William Shakespeare
April 23, 1564 – April 23, 1616
Sonnet #155
THEY that have power to hurt and will do none,
That do not do the thing they most do show,
Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,
Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow—
They rightly do inherit heaven’s graces,
And husband nature’s riches from expense;
They are the Lords and owners of their faces,
Others, but stewards of their excellence.
The summer’s flower is to the summer sweet,
Though to itself it only live and die;
But if that flower with base infection meet,
The basest weed outbraves his dignity:
For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.
