Tag Archives: tenacity
In the noise and whip
…It is lonesome, yes. For we are the last of the loud. Nevertheless, live. Conduct your blooming in the noise and whip of the whirlwind. – Gwendolyn Brooks This post is for anyone who has ever felt alone in a crowd. It’s for anyone who speaks in a voice trembling with grief or rage, while hearing …
Their life and their limits
“Experience has taught me this, that we undo ourselves by impatience. Misfortunes have their life and their limits, their sickness and their health.” — Michel de Montaigne Experience seems to be teaching me the same things it taught Montaigne, though I may not be learning it as gracefully. There’s an old saying: “If you don’t …
Sanctified bull doggedness
“Your success does not depend upon the brilliance and the impetuosity with which you take hold, but upon the ever lasting and sanctified bull doggedness with which you hang on after you have taken hold.” –– Dr. A. B. Meldrum As anyone who knows me well can tell you, tenacity is a virtue that sometimes …
And yet be determined
“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald For most of …
Nowhere else to go
“I have been many times driven to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had no where else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.” ― Abraham Lincoln Not quite 152 years ago, the United States endured “the single bloodiest day in American military history” …
A lion inside
“I was the shyest human ever invented, but I had a lion inside me that wouldn’t shut up!” — Ingrid Bergman I want to thank Bob Mielke, who visits here often, for the inspiration behind this post. If you’ve visited Bob’s blog, you have seen his amazing images, including the animal photos that are always …
The small daily differences
“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.” ― Marian Wright Edelman Years ago, during a baseball game when the opposing team kept making small, unexciting advances …
The key to failure
“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everyone.” ― Bill Cosby “Everything I did in my life that was worthwhile, I caught hell for.” ― Earl Warren There’s a very real difference between showing courtesy and respect to people with opposing views, versus compromising or hiding …
At the threshold
“The pressure of adversity is the most powerful sustainer of accountability. It’s as though everything you do is multiplied by 50 in order to surpass those with a head-start. I was never capable of slacking when at the threshold of failure.” ― Criss Jami One year ago, for Mother’s Day, I posted about my mother’s …
In the heart
“Truth is not reflected in a mirror, but contained in the heart. It is often obscured by reality.” — Alan A. Malizia One year ago today, my post mentioned Don Quixote, a literary character I’ve been hearing about all of my life. Our father is a fan of Quixote, especially as brought to life in …
The everyday struggle
“One wrestles with one’s dragons until the end of one’s life — it is a constant and eternal process. The crises in one’s life only show up in intensity what is going on every day. The crises are there, perhaps in order to illuminate the everyday struggle…so that one may be better prepared to fight, …
Our noblest hopes
“Our noblest hopes grow teeth and pursue us like tigers.” — John Gardner Tigers may be my favorite wild animals. Their beauty and power fascinate me. I like this quote, because I believe hope can be a formidable weapon against despair. I tend to think of hope as a passive, almost delicate quality; something silent …
Coaxed downstairs
“Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time.” — Mark Twain I’ve come to respect the immense power of habit to influence our lives for better or worse. In everything from eating to sleeping to managing money to how we …
All ready
I wanted to do something a little different with the quote today, just to change things up a bit. Let me know what you think. I see lots of quotes online that are “posterized” with photo or art, and I always enjoy them, but I have ZERO experience creating them. However, if you don’t mind …
Only the beginning
“The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning.” — Ivy Baker Priest Over the past 18 months, I’ve gotten a lot of practice at re-framing how I think about things. I’ve had to do quite a bit of that for most of my life, …
Great things
“Great things are done when men and mountains meet. This is not done by jostling in the street.” — William Blake I like these lines from Blake, because they remind me that obstacles need not be setbacks. In a few well-chosen and memorable words, he acknowledges the stamina life requires of us, the potential for tremendous …
Success is stumbling
“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” ― Winston Churchill One of my favorite places in California is the haunting Donner Memorial State Park near Truckee. It’s beautiful country, but there’s an eerie stillness that lingers in memory of the tragic history of the Donner Party, for whom the park …
Remembering: If you can…
Lines from one of my favorite poems, If by Rudyard Kipling: If you can dream – and not make dreams your master; If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to …
The most powerful drug
“Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.” ― Rudyard Kipling I don’t remember when I first realized that not everyone was as fascinated by words as I am, but it’s something that I still don’t fully understand. I have always been so drawn to words; their meaning, their rhythms and sounds, the …
Hope is at the root
“Hope is at the root of all the great ideas and causes that have bettered the lot of humankind across the centuries.” — Ronald Reagan Touring the beautiful grounds of the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, it isn’t hard to understand why he was such an optimist. There’s something about California that always …
Connected to something bigger
“When everything around you is changing, turn to the part of you that doesn’t change, that is calm, centered, and connected to something bigger.” — Ariane de Bonvoisin Churchgoing people are accustomed to hearing various metaphors for faith. It’s spoken of as an anchor, a rock, a fortress, and a shield. It’s described as “the substance of things …
The celebration
“A wedding anniversary is the celebration of love, trust, partnership, tolerance and tenacity. The order varies for any given year.” — Paul Sweeney This month, Jeff and I celebrate our 33rd wedding anniversary. Without question the past year has been the most difficult and challenging time we have ever faced together, but the “together” part …
The quiet voice
“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day, saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’” — Mary Ann Radmacher Enthusiasm and motivation are wonderful, but can backfire on us if we rush in with good intentions and expect too much of ourselves when tackling a new project or difficult resolution. …
Defeat Despair 