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Second chances

November 10, 2008 By Leave a Comment

The release of new energy that accompanies big change can make us feel as if we've been given a second chance. As a nation, it feels like we've been given a second chance to get some big things working better, working as well as they can (or is it just me who's feeling that?).

At times there's a sense of having been given a reprieve (when the stock market has made huge gains after recent cliff diving days, it has felt like a reprieve, somehow).

Or big changes on a personal level may be the result of having changed our own beliefs about what's possible. When we do that, it's often accompanied by a surge of energy as we forge ahead in a fresh direction.

Here's how a few other people see the theme of second chances:

We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance.
Harrison Ford

I am here again, in a familiar place feeling something I've felt before, wondering why it's still here, why I didn't deal with it more fully before. But I'm glad I have a second chance at it…and I know that if I need a third chance, I'll get it. I also know that if it comes up again, I'll recognize it sooner and deal with it more readily. This is growth. And, I am happy to be alive.
 Jan Denise

Bitterness imprisons life; love releases it. Bitterness paralyzes life; love empowers it. Bitterness sours life; love sweetens it. Bitterness sickens life; love heals it. Bitterness blinds life; love anoints its eyes.
Harry Emerson Fosdick

Nothing is more desirable than to be released from an affliction, but nothing is more frightening than to be divested of a crutch.
James Arthur Baldwin

Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.
Napoleon Hill

Sincere forgiveness isn't colored with expectations that the other person apologize or change. Don't worry whether or not they finally understand you. Love them and release them. Life feeds back truth to people in its own way and time.
Sara Paddison

Don't think of it as failure. Think of it as time-released success.
Robert Orben

The key to change…is to let go of fear.
Rosanne Cash

Filed Under: Current Affairs, Musings, People watching

It won’t be all sunshine and roses, but still…

November 6, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Reaching, beseeching, originally uploaded by jcgr.

…it does seem that we've tapped a new, positive "we" spirit in the country.

There is much work to do, of course.

Collectively, whatever role we each play, it takes a strong, positive shared vision, strong spirit, steady, continuous action. And doing our best, whatever part we play in the work that is now, moving ahead.

We can find – and create – excellence again.

Filed Under: Current Affairs, Images, Leadership, Strategic Planning

Rising above fear, moving ahead

November 6, 2008 By Leave a Comment

A primary message of Election 2008 results is that it is time to rise above fear. It is time to move ahead.

It will take time.

It will take innovation.

It will take hard work, together.

We can and will get the job done.

We always have.

The process, the path will be different this time in many ways. And some things will not be different enough, in the end, perhaps.

But we can make things better. It's one of the things on which this nation was founded…the pursuit of "better" than what we have, collectively.

We can do it again.

Filed Under: Current Affairs, Leadership, Musings, People watching, Strategic Planning

Aligned, almost magically

November 4, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Arrowhead, moon and planets, originally uploaded by jcgr.

Sometimes all parts of a puzzle fall into place, seemingly magically…or at the moment of victory so it seems to be.

Successful puzzle-solving requires the ability to move easily between "big picture" and "detail."

Celestial bodies sometimes seem, in the same way, to fall into place like a puzzle, arranging themselves in a beautiful, natural pattern that works.

Here the moon, planets and an arrowhead-shaped cloud align themselves in such a way that they create an elegant celestial puzzle or painting, in a way.

Filed Under: Current Affairs, Images, Musings

Fresh beginnings just ahead

November 3, 2008 By Leave a Comment

However the nation, collectively, decides that we should all be led, new beginnings are just ahead.

We may agree with the voters' decision, or we may not, but whatever that decision is, we're all in the
boat together when we wake up on November 5.

Here's how others have viewed fresh beginnings in the past:

This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.   
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Renew thyself completely each day; do it again and again and forever again.
Chinese saying

You give birth to that on which you fix your mind.
Antoine de Saint Exupéry

It is our duty as men and women to proceed as though the limits of our abilities do not exist.
Teilhard de Chardin

People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them.
George Bernard Shaw

It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is.
Erasmus     

God gives every bird its food but He doesn't throw it in the nest.
Joshua Holland

Filed Under: Current Affairs, Leadership, Quotes
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