conscioius effort will build and it will also tear down.

To be awake is to be alive
Henry David Thoreau-Walden

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake,
not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn,
which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep.
I know of no more encouraging fact
than the unquestionable ability of man
to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor.
It is something to be able to paint a particular picture,
or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful;
but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere
and medium through which we look, which morally we can do.
To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.
Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details,
worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour.

Having looked at the poem, again, I just say "amen". When we look at times that seem
critical or even times when we seem to have it all we need to look first at how blessed we
really are.