"Appreciate your uniqueness. Build on your strengths. Assess your talents. Make a fresh start. Take the necessary steps. Envision success. Know you can do it. Imagine the possibilities.

     Look forward. Savor your strength. Overcome obstacles. Stay happy. Let your spirit soar. Launch new ideas. Reach out. Aim high. Think big. Live fully.

     Rejoice in your capabilities. Invest in your potential. Take a giant leap forward. Don’t look back. Believe in yourself. Seize the moment.

     Hold tightly to dreams. Wrap them in hope. Color them possible. Never give in. Never give up."

Keep on Going . . . . .  Charles F. Kettering

     "Keep on going and the chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down."

     "If there were an Eleventh Commandment, someone said, it could well be Listen! Through listening, we can support our friends and family when the going is rough. We can comfort people for whom loneliness is a daily companion. We can say to all these people, ‘You are not alone.’"

     "Just to be aware of one’s vision is very difficult. We are so easily deluded by our own ego defense mechanisms. Each of us has to contend with the deceits of an illusory self, the person we would like others to see and accept. It is hard for most of us to distinguish this illusory self from a real but repressed self."

The Way It Is  . . . . . Virginia Satir

     "Life is not the way it’s supposed to be. It’s the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference."

     The person who is trying not merely to get by during a difficult period but to get out of a rutted existence and find the fullness of life will have to revise their basic vision…"

Up Words  . . . . . William Arthur Ward

     "Great persons rise above adversity and attain new heights of achievement by turning tribulations into triumphs, failures into fortunes, setbacks into successes, obstacles into opportunities, and burdens into blessings.

     They refuse to be hampered by handicaps, dismayed by discouragements, overcome by opponents, defeated by disappointments, or destroyed by disasters."

     "Moments of communing with God in the healing peace and beauty of nature have the effect of clearing the mind and empowering the will to make fresh beginnings…by inspiring us to put things together in creative, harmonious ways. I move with a creative aliveness, now that delight has awakened and expanded the horizon of my heart. Most of all, I live with a stronger hope in the possibilities that lie hidden within things and situations (and people)."

Daily Work  . . . . . Stanley Baldwin

     "Fires can’t be made with dead embers, nor can enthusiasm be stirred by spiritless men. Enthusiasm in our daily work lightens effort and turns even labor into pleasant tasks."

Our Most Wonderful Day  . . . . . Thomas Dreier

     "If we are ever to enjoy life, now is the time — not tomorrow, nor next year, nor in some future life after we have died. The best preparation for a better life next year is a full, complete, harmonious, joyous life this year. Our beliefs in a rich future are of little importance unless we coin them into a rich present life. Today should always be our most wonderful day."

"May your faith be as strong as a mountain wall,
     And subtle as the early morning mists.

May you believe that God’s power conquers all,
     And his love through trouble and pain persists.

May your faith soar like a multi-colored bird,
     And shine brighter than the blinding desert sun.

Because you know your prayers are ever heard
     And Jesus waits when the final day is done.

And may God bless you,
     The Father who rules the starry skies,
     The Son who rose from the dead,
     And the Spirit who comes in hope."

On Reading  . . . . . Francis Bacon, Essays

     "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention."

     "An Olympic runner was asked the secret of his success. His answer has profound implications for the Christian life.

     This is what the runner said: ‘The only way to win a race is to forget all previous victories, which would give you false pride, and all former failures which would give you false fears. Each race is a new beginning. Pressing on to the finish tape is all that’s important’.

     Forget past achievements and failures, press on to the goal."

     "Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."

People Travel  . . . . . St. Augustine

     "People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering."

     "Celtic spirituality remains like some hidden spring, a source of life and renewal for us if we choose to turn to it and learn from it…rooted in the simple belief that in all the unspectacular immediacy of daily living — both in the natural world and in daily work — God is close at hand."

"The greatest test of courage
is to bear defeat without losing heart."

     Some time ago, Fr. Regis Duffy, OFM preached a friars’ retreat and said something that I wrote in a journal. He said:

     "Walking is the biblical metaphor for conversion, like the journey along the road to Emmaus. Conversion is modeled by how we walk our own journey of faith. We are to preach, firstly, by our deeds, by living out our own conversion.

     "On your walk in faith with whom are you walking? And in which direction are you walking? Conversion is to be modeled before it is preached."

     Insight: today can be a turning point, a pivotal moment in living out your own conversion along your journey of Christian discipleship …