You do not choose your destiny;it chooses you.And those who knew you before fate took you by the handcannot understand the depths of the changes inside.~from the television series, "Heroes"~

He who cannot forgive others burns the bridge over which he himself must pass

Hard Choices

“I say to you, this morning, that if you have never found something so dear and precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren’t fit to live.

You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be, and one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid.

You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You’re afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you’re afraid that somebody will stab or shoot or bomb your house. So you refuse to take a stand.

Well, you may go on and live until you are ninety, but you are just as dead at 38 as you would be at ninety.

And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.

You died when you refused to stand up for right.

You died when you refused to stand up for truth.

You died when you refused to stand up for justice.”

-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
From the sermon “But, If Not” delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church on November 5, 1967.

So send I you to hearts made hard by hatred,
To eyes made blind because they will not see,
To spend though it be blood—to spend and spare not,
So send I you to taste of Calvary.
—Clarkson © 1966 Singspiration

Courage is not the absence of fear—it is the mastery of it.

Do what you can where you are with what you have.

Sir Arthur C. Clark

“When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong."

"The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible."

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Sir Arthur C. Clark

One Week

From triumph to despair to triumph again............
On Palm Sunday he entered Jerusalem triumphant, hailed as a King
The same crowds reviled him just five days later and yelled for his blood
Good Friday they crucified him
On Easter Sunday he arose from death
One week, seven days
Time enough for despair to turn to triumph
Time enough for miracles

Never Changes

He that never changes his opinions, never corrects his mistakes,
and will never be wiser on the morrow than he is today.

~Tryon Edwards~

Change

Change does not come until someone gets mad.

Those trying to bring change
will make mad those who do not want change.

~Myles Monroe~

Revenge restrained is a victory gained

In Life, Attitude decides the Altitude

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."

THEODORE ROOSEVELT
(Paris Sorbonne,1910)

“Some people believe in ‘an eye for an eye.’ But in reality, it’s two eyes for an eye. You can never even the score; you can only raise the stakes.”

To return good for good is natural; to return good for evil is supernatural.

We are not human beings going through a temporary spiritual
experience.
We are spiritual beings going through a temporary human
experience.

~Author Unknown~

One Call

If you were going to die soon
and had only one phone call you could make,
who would you call and what would you say?

And why are you waiting?

~Stephen Levine~

How We See It

"We don't see things as they are;

we see them as we are."


~Anias Nin~

Where They Are

Far too many can never see where they should or could be
...because they are blinded by where they are.


~from the book, "FAT2Fine - The SPIRIT of Weight Loss"
by Nathaniel H. Bronner Jr.

By Their Friends

Very few established institutions, governments and constitutions
are ever destroyed by their enemies until they have been
corrupted and weakened by their friends.
~Walter Lippman, journalist (1889-1974)~

Tricks of The Trade

Don't waste time learning the "tricks of the trade."

Instead, learn the trade.

In Everything

“In everything that I have created, your pain, your struggles
and your disappointments, there is beauty.

In everything the devil has created, even that which appears to
be beautiful, is at its core, ugly.”

~God~

"Those who dance are considered insane by those who can't hear
the music." George Carlin

Tears

God puts a tear in your eye

...so that you can see a rainbow.

~Author Unknown~

THIS TOO SHALL PASS

Cherokee Legend

Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth's rite of
passage?

His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him and
leaves him alone.

He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not
remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine
through it.

He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the
night, he is a MAN.

He cannot tell the other boys of this experience because each
lad must come into manhood on his own.

The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of
noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even
some human might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and
earth and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never
removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could
become a man!

Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he
removed his blindfold. It was then that he discovered his
father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch
the entire night, protecting his son from harm.

We, too, are never alone. Even when we don't know it, our
Heavenly Father is watching over us, sitting on the stump
beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out
to Him.

~Author Unknown~

RSL?

Are you a Reason, a Season, or a Lifetime?

Pay attention to what you read. After you read this, you will
know the reason it was sent to you!

People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a
lifetime. When you figure out which one it is, you will know
what to do for each person.

REASON:

When someone is in your life for a REASON. . .
It is usually to meet a need you have expressed. They have come
to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance
and support, to aid you physically, emotionally, or spiritually.
They may seem like a godsend, and they are! They are there for
the reason you need them to be.

Then, without any wrong doing on your part or at an
inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring
the relationship to an end.

Sometimes they die.
Sometimes they walk away.
Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand.

What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire
fulfilled, their work is done.

The prayer you sent up has been answered.

And now it is time to move on.

SEASON:

When people come into your life for a SEASON it is because your
turn has come to share, grow, or learn. They bring you an
experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you
something you have never done. They usually give you an
unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it! It is real!

But, only for a season.


LIFETIME:

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons; things you
must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation.

Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person, and put what
you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of
your life.

It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.

Thank you for being a part of my life.

Stop here and just SMILE.

Work like you don't need the money.
Love like you've never been hurt.
And dance like no one is watching.


~Author Unknown~

Mountains

The experienced mountain climber is not intimidated by a
mountain, he is inspired by it.

The persistent winner is not discouraged by a problem, he is
challenged by it.

Mountains are created to be conquered; adversities are designed
to be defeated; problems are sent to be solved.

It is better to master one mountain than a thousand foothills.

~William Arthur Ward~

Rich

Being rich is not determined by how much have
but by how little you need.

Great Men

Great men are they who see
that the spiritual is stronger
than any material force.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

"The fault is not in our stars, dear Brutus, but in ourselves."Julius Caesar

How Do You See Your Job?

Anyone who sees in his own occupation
merely a means of earning money degrades it;

but he that sees in it a service to mankind
ennobles both his labor and himself."

~A. Lawrence Lowell~

An Open Mind

A man who seeks knowledge without an open mind
seeks nothing at all.