“We should take as a maxim never to be surprised at current difficulties,
no more than at a passing breeze, because with a little patience we shall see them disappear.
Time changes everything.”
St. Vincent de Paul
(piping plover / Rosemary Beach, Fl /Julie Cook / 2020)
“Grant me, O Lord my God, a mind to know you, a heart to seek you,
wisdom to find you, conduct pleasing to you,
faithful perseverance in waiting for you, and a hope of finally embracing you.”
St. Thomas Aquinas
“Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you.
Never excuse yourself.
Never pity yourself.
Be a hard master to yourself-and be lenient to everybody else.”
― Henry Ward Beecher
(a cut sunflower / Julie Cook / 2016)
Some of us are…
And some of us are not…
What is it that makes us resilient to this thing we call life?
That uncanny ability to hold up and even withstand the often excessive plummeting experienced throughout this journey of living?
For some of us it seems to be a hidden innate, hardwired mechanism comprised of moxie, hutzpah, determination and an odd aligning of the universe producing pure stupid luck.
It is the ability to go on and on despite the assault of physical, mental, emotional and even spiritual forces.
For so many of us, it is life’s cruel and unkind events that render us senseless, dropping us to our knees…
Yet for a few seemingly invincible souls, it matters not the hardship, the heartache, the exhaustion of mind, body and soul—these are the able bodied souls who can take a licking of insurmountable proportion and keep on ticking….
Those who have survived kidnappings, beatings, rapes, tortures, years in death camps, the loss of limbs, excruciating illness and even the tragic separation from loved ones…
those who have witnessed atrocities unbearable to most human beings…
And yet these hardy souls, for good or bad, muster on…
often time not merely surviving, but actually thriving…
Have they been gifted…
or perhaps even cursed?
Are they stronger than the average person?
Are they immune from resulting miseries?
Or is there a subconscious awareness…
a drawing down into a place a great depth that reaches farther and wider….
touching upon that deeply buried remnant piece of the Divine…
The righteous keep moving forward,
and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger.
Job 17:9
Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.
Winston Churchill
(photograph: Troup County, Georgia / Julie Cook / 2013)
If there is anyone who should have known all about failure, tried attempts, loss of position, loss of a child, loss of income, loss of support, a bevy of doubters, naysayers, opposers ….the list can go on and on…it is none other than Sir Winston Churchill. And yet through all of the doubting, the disbelief, the hardships and sadness… he persevered forward..going on to become one of the greatest statesmen and orators this world has ever known.
But time is of the essence. You mustn’t dawdle. Time to get a move on if you’re going to make a difference, make a change, do something positive in a not so positive world. Heaven knows we all need positive—we need people who are willing to stand up for what is right, willing to take a stand for those who cannot stand for themselves, who will do the right thing when no one is looking, who will do the right thing when the masses “rile against thee”….
Better get hopping, time is “a wasting”……
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