Posts from — April 2008

Realize that your present difficulty is only a small part of you, and the rest of you is doing quite well, thank you.

Encouragement Always.

I spent Sunday evening visiting with my grandparents — my grandfather is 92 and my grandmother is 87.  We spent the entire time laughing, my grandfather is hilarious.  He made jokes about getting older, he made jokes about the time he spent in the nursing home, and he made jokes about the medic alert bracelet he wears on his arm.  He made jokes about the number of pills they take each day and how neither of them believe the medicine is doing them any good.  He made jokes about the hiccups, swollen ankles and memory lapses.  He made jokes about how young people think they know everything.  He made jokes about why they get up at 6 am every morning although they have no where to go and nothing to do… On the way home I remember thinking that maybe getting old is not so bad after all.   

Encouragement Always.

Today as I was leaving the grocery store I saw a woman walking toward her car and when I saw her from behind I remember thinking “wow, she is really heavy”.  Then, as a I was driving away, she turned in my direction, and I realized she was someone I met many years ago.  And then I remember thinking, “wow, she is really small.”  Although she still has lots of weight to lose, she looked at least 100 pounds lighter than when I met her years earlier.

What’s the moral of this story?  Life is not about where you are, it’s about how far you have come.

Encouragement Always.

To put away aimlessness and weakness and to begin to think with purpose, is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment; who make all conditions serve them, and who think strongly, attempt fearlessly, and accomplish masterfully.

Encouragement Always.

Despite all evidence to the contrary, there is nothing wrong with you.

Encouragement Always.

Out of perfection nothing can be made.

Every process involves breaking something up.

The earth must be broken to bring forth life.

If the seed does not die, there is no plant.

Bread results from the death of wheat.

Life lives on lives.

Our own life lives on the acts of other people.

If you are lifeworthy, you can take it.

What we are really living for is the experience of life, both pain and pleasure.

The world is a match for us.  We are a match for the world.

Encouragement Always.

The other day I was speaking with a woman who wanted to start a business.  When I asked her what was holding her back, she said, “I don’t feel like I can do it.”  I explained to her that “feelings” are not a reflection of what is true.  “Feelings” are a reflection of what we “think is true.”  That is why if you think you are stuck, you will eventually begin to feel stuck…   The good news is that when you begin to think differently, you will begin to feel differently. 

Encouragement Always. 

Tonight at 7 pm I will be speaking at the Kernersville Public Library at 130 East Mountain Street, Kernersville, North Carolina.  If you are in the area, please join us.

Encouragement Always.

Encouragement Always.

Keep walking, though there’s no place to get to.                                                                                                                                                                                                                       Don’t try to see through the distances.  That’s not                                                                                                                                                                                                                          for human beings.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Move within, but don’t move the way fear makes                                                                                                                                                                                                                      you move.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and                                                                                                                                                                                                              frightened.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Don’t open the door to the study                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    and begin reading.  Take down a musical                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 instrument.    

Let the beauty we love be what we do.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ground.

Encouragement Always.