Do You Know Who You Are?

Comedian Woody Allen quipped, “My one regret in life is that I am not someone else.” 

An old story tells of an unhappy and discontented stonecutter. One day he came upon a merchant and was awe-struck by all of the marvelous goods the man had for sale. “I wish I were a merchant,” said the stonecutter and, quite amazingly, his wish was granted.

Not long afterward he saw a parade pass his little shop. Spying a prince dressed in splendor such as he had never before seen, he said, “I wish I were a prince.” And he became one.

But it wasn’t too many days later that he stepped outside and felt the discomfort of the hot summer sun beating down upon his head. “Even a prince cannot stay cool in the sun,” he said. “I wish I were the sun.” This wish, too, was granted.

He was happy being the sun until, one day, a cloud came between him and the earth. “That cloud overshadows me,” he said. “I wish I were a cloud.”

Again, his wish was granted and he was happy until he came to a mountain that he could not rise above. “This mountain is greater than I,” he said. “I wish I were a mountain.”

As a tall and mighty mountain he looked down upon the affairs of humans and felt that he was finally happy. But one day a stonecutter climbed up his side and chipped away at rock and there was nothing he could do about it. “That little man is more powerful than I,” the mountain said. “I wish I were a stonecutter.”

So the circle was completed and now the stonecutter knew that he would always be happy just being himself. He would never dress like a prince, shine like the sun nor rise as tall as a mountain, but he was happy to be who he was.

I think Malcolm Forbes hits close to the mark when he says, “Too many people overvalue what they’re not and undervalue what they are.” If only we could see who we really are, not through a lens that accentuates imperfections, but one that reveals those qualities we have difficulty seeing.

Is there any greater happiness than knowing who we really are?

-- Steve Goodier

Image: flickr.com/JR P

When The World Says, “No!”

When 19th Century clergyman Henry Ward Beecher was a young boy in school, he learned a powerful lesson in self-confidence. He was called to stand and recite in front of the class. He had hardly begun when the schoolteacher interrupted with an emphatic, “No!” The startled boy began again. After a moment the teacher once more thundered, “No!” Now humiliated, the student sat down. The next boy rose to recite and had just begun when the teacher likewise shouted, “No!” This student, however, kept on with the recitation until he completed it. As he sat down, the instructor responded, “Very good!” Confused and irritated, the young Henry Beecher complained to the schoolteacher, “I recited just as he did.” But the instructor replied, “It is not enough to know your lesson, you must be sure. When you allowed me to stop you, it meant that you were uncertain. If all the world says, ‘No!’ it is your business to say, ‘Yes!’ and prove it.” It is clear to us that the world says, “No!” in a thousand ways:

“No! You can’t do that.” 

“No! You are wrong.”

“No! You are too old.”

“No! You are too young.”

“No! You aren’t strong enough.”

“No! You can’t do it that way.”

“No! You don’t have the right education.”

“No! You don’t have the background you need.”

“No! You don’t have enough money.”

“No! You’ll never succeed.”

And each “No!” you hear has the potential to erode your confidence bit by bit until you quit altogether.     

     

Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best: “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” 

The world may say “No!,” but if you have a bigger “Yes!” burning deep inside, the world won’t know what to do with you.

And you will always prevail.

--Steve Goodier

Image: flickr.com/Kevin Spencer

Just A Dime

Can one dime make a difference? Here is a woman who turned a dime into millions of dollars. 

Her name was Martha Berry. This clever woman founded the Berry School in Rome, Georgia. She scraped together funds from every source possible. One day she approached Henry Ford, of Ford automobile fame, and asked for a contribution. Patronizingly, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a dime.

Rather than be insulted or discouraged by the “gift,” Miss Berry bought a package of seed peanuts with it. The seeds were planted and tended, and they eventually yielded a large crop, which she later sold.

Again she called on Mr. Ford. “Here’s the dime you gave me last year,” she said, handing him a coin. Then she told him of the return she had realized from his token investment.

Ford was so impressed that, in the years to come, he gave millions of dollars to the school.

Can one dime make a difference? Yes, if it is well invested.

How about one hour of your time? Can it make a difference? Or how about the life of one person? Can a life like yours or mine really make a difference? The answer to each of these questions is the same: Yes, if it is well invested.

Now...how are your investments doing?

-- Steve Goodier 

Image: flickr.com/Nicu Buculei

We Are Meant For The Skies

A chauffeur worked for a woman who liked to take her cat with her on errands.

During one trip, the uniformed driver dropped her at a shopping mall before refueling. The cat remained in the car, lounging on top of the limousine's back seat.

The confused service station attendant stole several glances at the feline passenger relaxing in back. Finally, he asked: "Sir, is that cat someone important?"

I don’t know about the cat, but I’ve wasted too many years not feeling especially important. Not that I am or ever have been any more important than anybody else. But my low self esteem as a child and young adult always had me wishing I could measure up to others. I failed to see who I really was and struggled to become the person I felt I could be.

The following story reminds me how important a healthy self-image really is: 

A man found an eagle’s egg and put it in a nest of a barnyard hen. The eagle hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them. All his life, the eagle did what the barnyard chicks did, thinking he was a barnyard chicken. He scratched the earth for worms and insects. He clucked and cackled. And he thrashed his wings and flew a few feet in the air.

Years passed and the eagle grew very old. One day he saw a magnificent bird above him in the cloudless sky. It glided in graceful majesty among powerful wind currents, with scarcely a beat of its strong, golden wings. 

The old eagle looked up in awe. “Who’s that?” he asked. 

“That’s the eagle, the king of the birds,” said his neighbor. “He belongs to the sky. We belong to the earth – we’re chickens.” 

So the eagle lived and died a chicken, for that is what he thought he was. (Author unknown)

You and I were meant for the skies – not the chicken coop. Who will believe in you if you don’t believe in yourself?

-- Steve Goodier

Image: freeimages.com/Niall Crotty

A Better Way to Live

Did you know...?

That Joan of Arc was only seventeen when she was riding at the head of the army that liberated France from the English?

That church reformer John Calvin was twenty-six when he published his "Institutes"?

That poet John Keats died when he was twenty-six?

That Shelley was thirty when he was drowned, but not before he left English literature his classic "Odes"?

That Sir Isaac Newton had largely discovered the working of the law of gravitation when he was twenty-three?

That Henry Clay, the "great compromiser," was sent to the United States Senate at twenty-nine and was Speaker of the House of Representatives at thirty-four?

That Raphael painted his most important pictures between twenty-five and thirty?

That Mozart only lived to be thirty-five years old?

Maybe I’m just a late bloomer.

When I was a young man I wanted to make things happen. After a few years I realized I would have to content myself with watching most things happen.

Unfortunately, these days I usually have no idea what is happening.

Of course, most of us will never paint a masterpiece, write a classic or discover an important scientific principle. But why should we? We’re each cut from a unique pattern.

Dick Van Dyke once told the story of a woman taking her nephew to her Catholic church. She whispered to him as they approached the pew: "Can you genuflect?"

"No," he said, "but I can somersault!"

I wonder if he showed her…right then and there. I can almost see him rolling down the aisle in a joyous celebration of the thing he CAN do, with no regard for genuflecting… the thing he cannot do.

Some people waste lives obsessing on that thing they cannot do, wishing they were more competent. And some measure the value of their abilities against those of others, wishing they could contribute in a bigger and better way.

You and I may never be a Mozart, a Raphael or a John Keats. But there are things you CAN do to bring beauty or joy or happiness to your world. Find them. Do them. Celebrate them. Rejoice in them.

I can hardly think of a more significant way to live.

-- Steve Goodier