If you would know strength and patience,
welcome the company of trees. – Hal Borland
Strength, Patience, Trees with Steve McCurry
If you would know strength and patience,
If you would know strength and patience,
2018.07.01 On Self Knowledge
“When we know our own strength, we shall the better know what to undertake with hopes of success; and when we have well surveyed the powers of our own minds, and made some estimate what we may expect from them, we shall not be inclined either to sit still, and not set our thoughts on work at all, in despair of knowing anything; nor on the other side, question everything, and declaim all knowledge, because some things are not to be understood.” – John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
Taking time to take stock of our strengths (and weaknesses) is absolutely critical, and doing so with an objective mirror even more valuable. Learning where to open lines of inquiry in life, and also where enough work has been done.
I am more capable of taking risks today for I not only know my mind and heart, but I have survived both through their deepest states of trauma. I know what to turn away from my life, and what to turn towards, and what to let lay as it is asking of and for nothing more than for it to be.
“Greatness lies not in being strong, but in the right using of strength; and strength is not used rightly when it serves only to carry a man above his fellows for his own solitary glory. He is the greatest whose strength carries up the most hearts by the attraction of his own.” – Henry Ward Beecher
“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realise this, and you will find strength.” – Marcus Aurelius
“Even the strongest spirits have the moments of irresistible weakness,” – Jose Saramago, The Cave
“Vices surround and assail men from every side, and do not allow them to rise again and lift their eyes to discern the truth, but keep them overwhelmed and rooted in their desires.”
Seneca
“I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.”
Maya Angelou
“To dream anything that you want to dream. That’s the beauty of the human mind. To do anything that you want to do. That is the strength of the human will. To trust yourself to test your limits. That is the courage to succeed.”
Bernard Edmonds