Don't Let the Beetles Get You Down

On the slope of Long's Peak in Colorado lies the ruin of a gigantic tree. Naturalists tell us that it stood for some four hundred years. It was a seedling when Columbus landed at San Salvador, and half grown when the Pilgrims settled at Plymouth. During the course of its long life it was struck by lightning fourteen times, and the innumerable avalanches and storms of four centuries thundered past it. It survived them all. In the end, however, an army of beetles attacked the tree and leveled it to the ground. The insects ate their way through the bark and gradually destroyed the inner strength of the tree by their tiny but incessant attacks. A forest giant which age had not withered, nor lightning blasted, nor storms subdued, fell at last before beetles so small that a man could crush them between his forefinger and his thumb.

"Aren't we all like that battling giant of the forest? Don't we manage somehow to survive the rare storms and avalanches and lightning blasts of life, only to let our hearts be eaten out by little beetles of worry -- little beetles that could be crushed between a finger and a thumb?"
-Dale Carnegie

how do you measure success?

“How many people can walk into our homes and just open up the fridge and help themselves? Not many. People need ‘refrigerator rights relationships,’ the kind that are comfortable, informal, and intimate enough to let us walk into one another’s kitchens and rummage through the refrigerator without asking. It is close relationships like these that keep us well-adjusted, happy, and successful.”

-Keith Ferrazzi

Are you 'comfortable being uncomfortable'?

"‘Lou Pinella, the Tampa Bay Devil Ray’s manager, says he wants a team of guys that are ‘comfortable being uncomfortable.’ I like that line. I’ve found almost everything really valuable that I wanted in my life was sitting right outside of my comfort zone."

Tom Hanson, Ph.D., and Birgit Zacher Hanson, M.S.
Who Will Do What By When?

Pope Quote...

“Every country, rich or poor, has a cultural tradition handed down from past generations. This tradition includes institutions required by life in the world, and higher manifestations – artistic, intellectual and religious – of the life of the spirit. When the latter embody truly human values, it would be a great mistake to sacrifice them for the sake of the former. Any group of people who would consent to let this happen, would be giving up the better portion of their heritage; in order to live, they would be giving up their reason for living. Christ's question is directed to nations also: ‘What does it profit a man, if he gain the whole world but suffer the loss of his own soul?’”

-Pope Paul VI
Populorum Progressio (1968)

Quoted in A Civilization of Love by Carl Anderson

Let it be...

Sabbath
by Wayne Muller

When's the last time you got really mad?

“I was in a meeting where a discussion was going on which finally became rather bitter. Tempers were becoming frayed and some of the participants were decidedly on edge. Sharp remarks were passed. Suddenly one man arose, deliberately took off his coat, opened his collar, and lay down upon a couch. All were astonished, and someone asked if he felt ill.

‘No,’ he said, ‘I feel fine, but I am beginning to get mad, and I have learned that it is difficult to get mad lying down.’

We all laughed, and the tension was broken. Then our whimsical friend went on to explain that he had ‘tried a little trick’ with himself. He had a quick temper, and when he felt himself getting mad he found that he was clenching his fist and raising his voice, so he deliberately extended his fingers, not allowing them to form into a fist. In proportion to the rising of his tension or anger, he depressed his voice and talked in exaggerated low tones. ‘You cannot carry on an argument in a whisper,’ he said with a grin.

This principle can be effective in controlling emotional excitements, fretting and tension, as many have discovered by experimentation. A beginning step, therefore, in achieving calmness is to discipline your physical reactions. You will be surprised at how quickly this can reduce the heat of your emotions, and when emotional heat is driven off, fuming and fretting subside. You will be amazed at the energy and power you will save. You will be much less tired.”

- Norman Vincent Peale
The Power of Positive Thinking