This quote pierced deeply, and poured a different perspective into my life. What are the inconsequences that are keeping me from the dreams I desire? Where do I find the courage to release me from these petty chains?

Credit: I found this quote on my friend’s “Life After Divorce” Blog. The image is public domain, and is the last plane Amelia ever flew in.

It may be those who do most, dream most.
~My fortune cookie today

“That which is learned without joy, is forgotten without regret.” ~Merlin

“Nine tenths of education is encouragement.” ~Anatole France

“Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” ~John Dewey

“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” ~Pablo Picasso

“The man who can make hard things easy is the educator.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” ~William Butler Yeats

“…Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” ~by Marianne Williamson

“Have patience. Things that last grow slowly. Be a mighty oak. Be an unmovable mountain.”
~Unknown

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“A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.”
-Jack London (The Road)

“The difference between what the most and the least learned people know is inexpressibly trivial in relation to that which is unknown. When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.” ~Albert Einstein

“To handle yourself, use your head. To handle others, use your heart.” ~John Maxwell

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” -Dale Carnegie

“We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done.” ~Unknown

“There are two important days in a person’s life: The day he is born and the day he finds out why?” ~Anonymous

What is to give light must endure burning. ~VIktor Frankl

“He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.” – Albert Einstein

“Two feet can only walk one path.”
- African proverb

The Oak Tree
by Johnny Ray Ryder Jr

A mighty wind blew night and day
It stole the oak tree’s leaves away
Then snapped its boughs and pulled its bark
Until the oak was tired and stark

But still the oak tree held its ground
While other trees fell all around
The weary wind gave up and spoke.
How can you still be standing Oak?

The oak tree said, I know that you
Can break each branch of mine in two
Carry every leaf away
Shake my limbs, and make me sway

But I have roots stretched in the earth
Growing stronger since my birth
You’ll never touch them, for you see
They are the deepest part of me

Until today, I wasn’t sure
Of just how much I could endure
But now I’ve found, with thanks to you
I’m stronger than I ever knew

The difference between mediocracy and excellency can ever be so small. ~President Gordan B. Hinkley 

Found this quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson on the web today: “Every artist was first an amateur.”

I think it is always natural to desire certain talents and skills. To want to be able to sing well, draw beautifully, or play like the masters, though, requires sacrifice. The most significant sacrifice usually is starting out as an amateur. However, having the clumsy hands of an amateur doesn’t last if you have the passion of an expert!

Yesterday was Fourth of July, and I wrote a post about how we can help relieve the suffering of the Iraqi people. Due to this post I pondered a great deal last night on the freedoms I currently enjoy here in America.

Whether you are for or against the war in Iraq really means little to me. What is important is our responsibility to freedom—both at home and abroad.

I am a grandson of a World War II vet. My grandfather spoke little about the war before his death (even at the great prodding of his grandsons). The atrocities he witnessed and the emotional and physical strain he endured was too great for him to relive.

However, now looking sixty plus years into the past we can see with acute clarity that what my grandfather endured was not only worth it, but essential to the millions of those oppressed by the Nazi regime. Unfortunately, “The War To End All Wars” didn’t, and neither did it end the suffering of future wars.

My brother, who is a year and half younger then me, served in the second Gulf War. The stories he shared with me as they worked to overthrow the Saddam government were appalling; so much so that I have no desire to share them here.

I do not doubt there are politics involved in the current war. However, I am a realist and recognize that we are in Iraq now. Opposing the current war without a solution that doesn’t destroy the fragile freedom of the Iraqi people is a moral chasm that shouldn’t be crossed.

Our soldiers—my brother and grandfather—didn’t fight history’s wars for George W. Bush or Franklin D. Roosevelt. They fought these wars because they realized that freedom was and is at peril. Freedom which allows us to support or oppose the wars we enter.

As you can tell my opinions run deep on this subject. I do not wish to turn this blog into a political platform; that is not its purpose. I just ask that as we walk the path of freedom to not only remember those who have given their lives, but also those who will give their lives for your rights.

There is a great verse in a gospel hymn that sums up our fight for freedom: “If we fail, we fail in glory.” May we not fail, but may we also not use failure as an excuse to cease our struggle for freedom. ~Paul W.