Nature's Force In Me

Just as the powerful Niagra Falls has a right to roar in wonder
So do I
Just as the sky-popping Andes have the right to stand with majestic force
So do I
Just as the massive hurricanes have the right to flex their strength
So do I
Just as the peregrine falcon has the right to dive full-force toward a single-minded goal
So do I
Just as the Colorado river has the right to bust over rocks and to pour its powerful, pulsating rapids toward a basin of peace
So do I
Just as the wildebeest of Africa have the right to gather their herd and to stampede in an instinctual frenzy away from fear and apathy
So do I
Just as the brilliant sun has the right to radiate rapturous light for all who see
So do I

I have the inherent right to radiate my light, to beat MY drum and to sing MY song, “Here AM I--Majestic like the Andes, Decisive like the Falcon, and Brilliant like the Sun… Here am I -- a power to reckon with, a force of nature, my true nature

For I am this, a power of a power, whose force expresses itself uninhibited in all the universe

And since IT expresses in all forms, in all wisdom, and with all power…

Then as an expression of THAT

SO DO I

EH

Re-channel Your Excuses

We all have reasons for failing. Naturally, we blame our past. Our parents failed us. Our schools ruined us. Our friends betrayed us. We are the product of our environment or our genes. In short, it's not our fault. Pretty convenient, huh?

Yet, what if this instant we dropped all our reasons, our excuses, and just lived as if everything we did or did not do was our choice? What if we decided that, despite everything that ever happened to us, we were ultimately responsible for it?

Aren't we?

I'm not suggesting that the past cannot be a strong influence. It can be. It is. However, what if we lived excuse free? What if we believed that ultimately we alone shaped our decisions? What if we believed that and lived that? How would our life change?

I challenge you to stop yourself the moment you limit yourself with a reason why you didn't do something, or why you did do something you should not have done. Just accept resonsibilty and correct it. Live your life passionately focused on doing whatever it is you believe is most important. Accomplish that excuse free and see what happens.


That's what Daniel Beaty encourages in this intense and powerful recitation about making a difference despite one's past.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

--William Ernest Henley

IF -- by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you.
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat these two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!