No Fear

"You block your dream when you allow your fear to grow bigger than your faith." -Mary Manin Morrissey

Sit back and think about how many times you would have done something in life if fear had not entered your mind. Think of standing up in front of an audience to deliver a presentation, asking that girl across the room out to a movie, or trying out for the baseball team. Maybe you thought of trying to act in a play and sing in a musical. Or what about trying to write a book?

Now sit back and think about all of those experiences and how they could have changed your life. Think of where you would be today if you had pushed fear out of the way. The darkness of living in fear would have been lifted by the light of new experience.

I know because I pushed aside fear and did everyone of those things. Was I a success at all of them? No, but each of them have allowed me to experience a great life.

By turning off that knob of fear, by chasing it from your life, there is so much more to be gained. Try something different and when fear gets in the way, knock it aside. This is your life and it is full of great things for you.

French Dialogue

"That is the happiest conversation where there is no competition, no vanity, but a calm quiet interchange of sentiments." -Samuel Johnson

It was all we wanted, a cup of coffee from which a relaxing afternoon would melt away. It was of course in a restaurant in the French village of Senlis. Two Americans, enjoying the day and trying to traverse the French language in a way those around thought amusing.

It is said by some that the French can be rude, but I would say that can happen anywhere. The French are very nice and accomodating any time I travel to France. What I do observe is if you try to speak the language of the local area you are in, it is a respectful sign and acknowledgement to them. And so we tried, we viewed the menu and tried to say the right words in the right dialect and without sounding too foolish.

We used our intellect and could make out the words of various items on the menu. The cafe, creme brulee were easy enough and the tarte aux pomme was likely a dessert as well. Go figure, it would be the desserts that we understood most easily. Yet it was not a meal we were after, it was conversation.

In a country where you don't speak the language, all of the conversations around you are like static to the senses. You know the talk is of family, sports, business or possibly gossip. But you can not make out the words and the laughter is enticing. So you look at each other and start your own conversation, in English, in focus on each other.

I would like to think that those around us enjoyed the English language as well since it is not something they hear all that often. Two Americans, a man and woman, husband and wife talking of things close to them, of things that fill their life together.

It was a conversation that was long but was too short. That is what makes relationship with others so wonderful. It is what makes my marriage so great; the conversation between two people. A cup of coffee, a dessert and a long conversation that always seems to end too soon.

Make your conversations with others the ones each of you want to remember for a long time. Make those conversations such that you never want them to end. Make your connection with others be the type that they never want it to end.

First Steps

"The distance is nothing; it is only the first step that is difficult." -Madame Marie du Deffand

My wife and I received a very exciting email from our daughter in Los Angeles over the weekend. It was more exciting than our week long trip in France. It was seeing our grand-daughter crawl for the first time, captured on video.

This is the first of many that all of us will and have taken in life. Once we begin to crawl, we move that much closer to our first of many steps. That is how it begins, learning to crawl and wanting to get to another place in our life.

As we grow older we tend to forget those first steps. The first time we tasted ice cream, the first time we fell in love with our spouse, the feeling of seeing a child born. These moments seem to get lost in our growing older, in taking so many steps getting to where we thought we wanted to be.

We get so wrapped up in our own selfishness that we look down and find our path has diverged from those around us. And in that moment we have to make a decision to find our way back to the first time we tasted ice cream, the first time we fell in love with our spouse, and the feeling of seeing a child born.

It starts by deciding to crawl until we can find our feet again. The first step occurs and another and another. You will find things lining back up again in your life. If there was anger and hurt in your life, it will dissolve with each passing foot step. The selfishness will evaporate and greater things will begin to happen in your life.

Start crawling if that is what it takes. Soon enough those first steps will take place and when able, start running. Run to the important things in life, not from them.

Educated Confidence

"I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning to sail my ship." -Aeschylus

It starts early in life, from the moment we are born. I am talking about the learning process. We learn new sounds while still in the womb, figuring out that voice is our mother or father. With the first light of birth, we connect the voices to the faces, processing every bit of information.

On it goes through pre-school, elementary, high-school and college. It doesn't even matter that you go through all of the formal education. Knowledge is a constant thing in our life. The more you learn, the more you understand the world around you. The more you learn, the more you will understand your place in it.

We can choose not to learn, we can choose ignorance and become mired in the mud of life. We can choose to learn more and lift ourselves to greater possibility. It is a choice we can make each and every day.

Choose to learn more each day. Choose to make your life greater.