It’s been a bittersweet day, with both disappointment and excitement. I’ll talk more about all that later, but I was reminded of the poem Ulysses by Alfred Lord Tennyson. The whole thing is worth savoring, but these last nine lines are my favorite:
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,–
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.–from Ulysses by Tennyson