“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
courage
Say Yes to Opportunity When it Knocks
A wise friend gave me a sage piece of advice. She said, “Ray, when an opportunity knocks on your door let it in. It probably won’t pass your way again.” Opportunity often knocks at the most inopportune times making it easy to turn away from it. I think it happens that way to test us to see how badly we want it. It wants us to put our energy and passion into the opportunity it is presenting to us. No half way in. It wants us to go all in. That can be intimidating. It’s why most turn away from it with the hope that they will seize it when everything is right. Mostly, things are never always right. It takes a leap of faith and courage to say yes to opportunity when it knocks. Here’s hoping you have an overloaded supply of both.
Fearlessly Face Today
We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us. ~ Charles Bukowski
Today’s Inspiring Quotation by J.R.R. Tolkien
“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien
Today’s Thought: Knowing the Difference Makes a Difference
When we attempt to control things, events, or people we can’t control we become frustrated. Our frustration often turns to anger and we say or do things we later regret. The Serenity Prayer offers a way through this conundrum.
“God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change
the courage to change the things I can
and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Today’s Quote: Don’t Fear the Unknown
How can you know what you’re capable of if you don’t embrace the unkown? ~ Esmeralda Santiago
Today’s Thought: The Best Predictor of Human Behavior
I had a psychology professor in undergraduate school who said, “The best predictor or human behavior is past behavior.” I’ve remembered it and found it to be true. There’s a big difference between what folks say and what they do. If you want to know a person, watch what they do. If they’ve lied in the past, they’ll lie in the future. If they’ve been kind in past they will be kind in the future. If we take a hard look at ourselves and see things we don’t like, we can change and prove my professor wrong. it takes courage to make that kind of change.
Today’s Quote: Prayer for Today
Lord, help me to live this day, quietly, easily. To lean upon Thy great strength, trustfully, restfully. To wait for the unfolding of Thy will, patiently, serenely. To meet others, peacefully, joyously. To face tomorrow, confidently, courageously. ~ St. Francis of Assisi
Today’s Poem: A World Worth Living In by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
A World Worth Living In
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
One who claims that he knows about it
Tells me the earth is a vale of sin;
But I and the bees, and the birds we doubt it,
And think it a world worth living in.
——
Whatever you want, if you wish for it long,
With constant yearning and ceaseless desire,
If your wish soars upward on wings so strong
That they never grow languid, never tire,
Why, over the storm cloud and out of the dark
It will come flying some day to you,
As the dove with the olive branch flew to the ark,
And the wish you’ve been dreaming,
it will come true.
Today’s Poem: Doors of Daring by Henry Van Dyke
Doors of Daring
Henry Van Dyke
The mountains that enfold the vale
With walls of granite, steep and high,
Invite the fearless foot to scale
Their stairway toward the sky.
The restless, deep, dividing sea
That flows and foams from shore to shore,
Calls to its sunburned chivalry,
“Push out, set sail, explore!”
And all the bars at which we fret,
That seem to prison and control,
Are but the doors of daring, set
Ajar before the soul.
Say not, “Too poor,” but freely give;
Sigh not, “Too weak,” but boldly try,
You never can begin to live
Until you dare to die.
