“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

Theodore Roosevelt, Paris 1910.

“Confusion is a high state as long as you don’t stay there.”

Confusion means that something new is coming into our consciousness that we haven’t quite accepted yet. An old thought form or belief system is still in place and we’re not quite ready to let it go.There is a cross over between these two thought energies pulling at our mind.

This is confusion.

It’s a high state because we are moving from an old paradigm into a new one. This is progress, evolution or involution. People who are perpetually confused and confounded are not the subject of this discussion! We are talking about movement into new higher territory and the mental friction that is part of the natural process of getting there.

~ Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
16th US president 1861-65, elected 2 terms, Civil War ended 4/9, assassinated 4/14/65.

Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner. But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn.He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife.

“He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, ‘Here you go,’” Diaz says.
As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, “Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you’re going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm.”

The would-be robber looked at his would-be victim, “like what’s going on here?” Diaz says. “He asked me, ‘Why are you doing this?’” Diaz replied: “If you’re willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me … hey, you’re more than welcome.

Your hands spread the colds and flu, viral and bacterial. So instead of shaking someone’s hand when you meet them …just give them a big ole’ HUG. It opens everyone’s hearts and it feels great! Here’s sending everyone a huge hug!

~ Norman Vincent Peale (1898-1993)
The Power of Positive Thinking – US pastor, Marble Collegiate Church, NYC, author, The Power of Positive Thinking ’52