CELEBRATING SUCCESS AND PROGRESS

Who do you thank for being in your becoming?

How do you celebrate what you've done when you know that you are far from done? I mean, I know we should take time to recover from the run, metaphorically speaking. But how do you rejoice when you know you still aren't peaking but pecking instead at what lies ahead? Why do some souls seem so old that they hold the future in their hands as if it is present? Thus what detains others is for them no deterrent. That's what I wonder as I have pushed through the summer of life. Now, however, it's fall and I'm ready to haul it all in. If I had my mother I would be less intense, slightly at least. Yet I'm intent on being the best despite the demand success requires.

HAVE YOU DECIDED?

Borrowed laurels seldom last.

Have you decided not to be chided away from your dream no matter how hard it is or how hot the steam? Can your devotion endure the motions and mishaps that comes from walking the path? After the excitement fades are you still willing to wade beyond yourself into depths you've never been? If so, success will eventually call you "friend." Until then, reject fear and embrace cheer because each act brings you near to what will ultimately endear your heart and endow your soul with a satiety you can hardly hold.

DREAMING BIG!

We dream big yet often fall hard. But if we are committed we disregard the bruises we encounter and the ways we flounder in route to achieve our dreams. Many, unfortunately, can't do the same thing. They can, but they won't because they are too caught in what others think. So, they live lives that steadily shrink, so much until they shriek at its size, which is something real dreamers recognize. So, they keep falling and crawling until they are hauling themselves to the crest of success. Here they look back, and occasionally down; never, though, at others who couldn't make it off the ground. On the contrary, they are too compassionate to gloat and too humane not to hope that others too will some-day make it.

HAUNTED

If what you want doesn't haunt then you probably won't have it, because it often takes so long to grab it. Thus most people tire rather than going beyond the ire of circumstances. Success for these is just a tease that tingles rather than making them tenacious. Superficially, however, they seem ambitious. But if they truly were they wouldn't care how long it took for them to hook their desire. That's what they don't understand about success or greatness. That's also why they avoid the risks that winners are taking daily. They want guarantees before they begin that they will win. Yet if guarantees could be given life wouldn't be worth living. Neither would there be prestige in wearing the ribbon that denotes success. So, if you want it you must be willing to be haunted until you have it in your hand. Yet you must first have it in your heart to achieve. Otherwise, you will leave life without experiencing just how nice success feels and greatness is.

TEARS, TIME AND`TEARING

It's hard not to worry when your eyes get all teary because time is tearing at your soul. This is also usually the first sign that you're getting old. Yet you keep lasting because of your passion to achieve what you conceived in your soul. Still despite your pursuits your dream continues to elude your grasp. What do you do then, keep pursuing or let it pass and pout because it flouts your best efforts? Unfortunately, the answer to this is personal because no one can do our choosing for us. In this regard, succes requires infinite trust, especially when the path twists and you continually miss seizing the thing that is most pleasing to your soul. Only those who are committed will continue to be bold, indifferent to their age, the stage, and the inevitability of growing old. Sooner than later they will be greater than they imagine. It's all about pursuit and maintaining your passion!

YOUR FIRE!

It's hard to be defended when our supply is endless. While others run out we go on doing what we can, placing a demand on the Spirit that guides our hands, whatever our peculiar craft. Thus we do in whole what others do in half, causing them to question our path. Yet while they question we maintain the direction in which Destiny points and where desire enjoins to sustain our efforts. (What others consider our best, we know instinctively that we could've done better). In refusing to be average we inevitably gain the advantage over those who mis-manage their time, and who are also the first to whine about their outcast state. Until they change, however, they will never become great or even as good as they desire. Be wise therefore and guard your fire!

BORROWING PAIN

There is a sorrow that can't be borrowed but is born in the soul of the person that is the source of the hurting that they feel. Others say "it's all in their heads." But to them the pain is profoundly real. Their immediate instinct is to reach out, to find a way out of their anguish. Yet to be relieved prenaturely would only cause danger, because certain souls must hurt before they learn their girth and goals. Pain in this regard plays an instructive role. For most people pain is a sign to stop and whine about just how unfair life is. But those with the proper sense see it as a gift that Destiny gives, and it becomes in fact the foundation for how they live. Characteristically, they are passionate and compassionate, authentic and inventive in their words, if not their ways. Their circle is usually small because not all have the gall to embrace their words. Those that do will learn to eschew excuses, abuses and uncritical uses of reason, seeking instead to do what is right and pleasing in promoting others healing.