These are times that have left many people worried and scared about the future. The economic realities and other injustices that have hit people's lives throughout the world bring with them great cause for concern and hope for the change we need so badly.
There are always lessons to learn from those who came before us. In times of tragedy and trouble in my own life, learning from those I would never know has always been comforting. Somehow I didn't feel alone, knowing someone else had made it through the seemingly impossible.
In one of my cherished old books written by John Homer Miller, I read about two such people this morning. Interestingly, they lived nearly two thousand years apart: Socrates, the Classical Greek Philosopher ( 469 BC–399 BC), and Fanny Crosby (1820-1915) --- and yet, one's wisdom is brought to life by the other's example. Now there is an demonstration of putting our differences to work that I hadn't thought about.
"Socrates was right when he said that if you would gather together all the troubles of all the people in the world, weigh them, and find the average, you would pick up your own and sneak off better contented with your lot. That is was Fanny Crosby did."
I didn't know who Fanny Crosby was until today. She was an American Lyricist, well known for her quite famous Christian Hymns, many that are sung in churches all over America and the world today. She wrote over 8000, despite being blind from age 6. She developed an amazing positive attitude about her life by taking a long look around. "She saw although she was blind she had many things which other people did not have." Listen to her in this early poem...
O what a happy child I am;
Although I cannot see!
I am resolved that in this world
Contented I will be.
How many blessings I enjoy;
That other people don't;
To weep and sign because I'm blind
I cannot and I won't!
John Homer Miller wrote about this ability to look out into the distance at what is possible... "One more thing can be said. You develop and maintain a balanced attitude toward life by taking a long look ahead. When you do that, you inevitably view your present moment in a totally different perspective. The knowledge that in the past an apparent defeat has turned out to be a victory enables you to live in the hope that what happened yesterday can happen tomorrow. Then you live your present moment, whatever it may be, in the faith that it is filled with unforeseen and unforeseeable possibilities."
What possibilities are you overlooking?
Look out and around with me to see the promise in a new tomorrow.
Best...
Debbe
Debbe Kennedy
Author and founder, Global Dialogue Center
Home of Women in the Lead
My New Book! Putting Our Differences to Work (June 2008)
The Fastest Way to Innovation, Leadership, and High Performance
Learn more: www.puttingourdifferencestowork.com
Next Monthly Online Dialogue:
Tuesday, October 14, 2008 Join me!
TOPIC: When the going gets tough...
Comments