®   Volume 22, # 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . March, 2007

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Plant these "seeds" well and water often. Enjoy!

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Education’s Basic Mandate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Carmody, The Progressive Pilgrim

    "Education’s basic mandate is to awaken and feed the desire to know. In the same way, study should grow self-knowledge concerning conceptualization, judgment and decision…[W]e can be shown how concepts issue from insights, how judgment flows from a grasp of sufficient evidence, how courses of action should prosecute judgments of goodness."

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Meaning of Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Leo Tolstoy

    "The meaning of life lies in two major areas: your personal perfection and service to other people. You can serve while you are moving toward perfection, and you can move toward perfection by serving people."

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Strive for Excellence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anonymous, INSPIRE

"Don’t let perfection get in the way of excellence."

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Problem with Waiting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jim Rohn

"The problem with waiting until tomorrow is that when it finally arrives, it is called today. Today is yesterday’s tomorrow. The question is what did we do with its opportunity? All too often we will waste tomorrow as we wasted yesterday, and as we are wasting today. All that could have been accomplished can easily elude us, despite our intentions, until we inevitably discover that the things that might have been have slipped from our embrace a single, unused day at a time."

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Become Significant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fr. Brian, TOR

    Dr. Stephen Covey is the author of the brilliant book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. But it seems that most people just recall the title The 7 Habits, and forget the rest of the title, which is the book’s main focus—developing Highly Effective People.

    While driving home for Christmas vacation I listened to the audio book of Covey’s The 8^th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness. He said, "Leadership," like discipleship, "is a personal choice. It is not positional, not nature, nor nurture. It requires a conversion from the inside out, not from the outside in. It means to leave behind a life of mediocrity, to live in excellence, to strive for greatness, to become significant."

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Big Differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Marian Wright Edelman

    "We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee."

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A Way of Prayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Word Among Us, 8/`85

    "Our life with God is like a growing, living thing which springs from the seed of the living word of God. Allow that seed to be planted in your life each day through prayer and reading and reflecting on Scripture. In the darkness of today’s world, many have lost all sense of God’s nearness and love…We need to be a light for all those with whom we live, but we can only be that light if we are praying with faith every day."

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On Ignorance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Will Rogers

"Everybody is ignorant—only on different subjects."

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Qualities of Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Napoleon Hill, Think & Grow Rich, p. 88

    A corporate recruiter’s letter to a College Placement Office stated: "We are interested primarily in finding men who can make exceptional progress in management work. For this reason we emphasize qualities of character, intelligence and personality far more than specific educational background."

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Art of Gratitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . William Arthur Ward

"Practice the art of gratitude,      The habit of thanksgiving, and      The attitude of appreciation."

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Spirituality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ernest Kurtz, The Spirituality of Imperfection, p. 31

    "For spirituality is always beyond control. We can’t hold it in our hands and touch it, manipulate it, or destroy it. Because it is beyond control, it is also beyond possession: we can’t own it, lock it up, divide it among ourselves, or take it away from others."

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Duty of an Optimist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Edward Teller

    "A pessimist is a person who is always right but doesn’t get any enjoyment out of it, while an optimist is one who imagines that the future is uncertain. It is a duty to be an optimist because if you imagine that the future is uncertain, then you must do something about it."

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The Most of Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bishop Frank Rodimer, The Beacon, March 3, `88

    "If we’re not supposed to worry about our yesterdays nor fret about our tomorrows, how do we handle our need to catch up on yesterday’s duties and prepare for those to come? Clearly, it is by making the most of today, by living in the present. If we keep thinking about the mistakes we’ve made or the opportunities lost, we’re apt to miss the abundant opportunities we have here and now.

    …As the Queen told Alice in Through the Looking Glass, ‘Today isn’t any other day, you know.’ Well, it isn’t; it’s the one God has given us. It’s up to us to use it wisely and to discover whatever joy and learn whatever truth he sends our way in each new day."

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Instructions of a King . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kuno Myer

    In ancient Irish poetry Cormac McArt engages his son Cairbre in a dialogue which outlines the duties of a king, and offers a picture of a remarkably wise leader with a superlative code of ethics.

    "O grandson of Conn O’Cormac," said Cairbre, "what is best for a king?"

    "Not hard to tell," said Cormac. "But for him—firmness without anger, patience without strife, affability without haughtiness, guarding of ancient lore, giving justice, truth, peace, giving many alms, honoring poets, worshiping the great God.

    "…Let him attend to the sick, benefit the strong, possess truth, chide falsehood, love righteousness, curb fear, crush criminals, judge truly, foster science, improve his soul, utter every truth. For it is through the truth of a ruler that God gives all.

    "Let him restrain the great, …exalt the good, consolidate peace, check unlawfulness, protect the just, confine the unjust.

    "He should question the wise, …fulfill the law, be honest with friends, be manly with foes, learn every art, know every language, hearken to elders, be deaf to rabble.

    "Let him be gentle, let him be hard, let him be loving, let him be merciful, let him be righteous, let him be patient, let him be persevering, let him hate falsehood, let him love truth, let him be forgetful of wrong, let him be mindful of good,…let his covenants be firm, let his levies be lenient, let his judgments and decisions be sharp and light.…For it is by these qualities, kings and lords are judged."

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The Frozen Eagle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Source Unknown

    Once a proud eagle perched on the tip of an iceberg floating swiftly down the river. The big bird seemed oblivious to the tremendous waterfall that lay ahead. At the same time, a hunter was walking down a path along the river’s edge. Seeing the huge bird perched on the iceberg, the hunter clapped his hands and cried out, "Brother Eagle, fly away, fly away. There is danger ahead!"

    The eagle merely shrugged its great wings as if to say, "Don’t bother me. I know what I’m doing."

    As the iceberg floated closer to the waterfall, the hunter again cried out, "Fly away, Brother Eagle! There is a waterfall ahead!"

    Again the eagle merely shrugged its wings, as if to say, "Don’t bother me. I can take care of myself."

    At the moment, the eagle looked down just in time to see that the iceberg had reached the brink of the waterfall and was about to go over the edge. It spread its mighty wings and prepared for immediate take-off. But the eagle was unable to rise. Its claws were frozen to the ice and it went down with the iceberg.

 

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