Here's an excerpt I like a lot from a famous Chinese poet, Tao Yuanming (陶渊明)
采采荣木,结根于兹。
晨耀其华,夕已丧之。
人生若寄,憔悴有时。
静言孔念,中心怅而。
采采荣木,于兹托根。
繁华朝起,慨暮不存。
贞脆由人,祸福无门。
非道曷依?非善奚敦?
Roughly translated, it means the following:
O blossom at dawn,
In the midst of your prideful display,
Can you foresee your petals tainted by mud at dusk?
And what are we but ephemeral beings in this world,
as we turn into dust within the blink of an eye.
As I ponder this inevitable fate,
I cannot help but feel sorrow.
O blossom at dawn,
Do you lament the wilting that comes at dusk?
To cry or to laugh knowing your ending,
To wait or to make your own fortune,
The choice is yours.
So what are you waiting for?
Strive for truth and goodness.
This may sound clichéd, but in the middle of all this rush to learn
how to do things more efficiently, I would like to take a moment to remind myself the
why behind it all.