#3. “No bird flies high when there is calm.”- Wilbur Wright.
1. Human beings are not made for defeat. A human being can be destroyed but not defeated. — Ernest Hemingway
The world is like a rigged video game in which it is difficult to win, and you usually lose.
And sometimes, that feeling of constant loss becomes too much of an uphill struggle. I know.
When I feel I can’t take it anymore, I remember Hemingway’s excellent book, The Old Man and the Sea.
I am that old Cuban fisherman in the book whose luck has abandoned him and who tries to make amends by catching the biggest fish of his life.
And I understand that I do what I do because I have to because that’s what I am, a survivor.
And I have to catch my damn fish even if it costs me everything I have.
2. Don’t worry about tomorrow. Do good today. — Padre Pio
When tribulation knocks on my door, I remember the old Padre Pio, an old Capuchin monk who managed to move millions of people’s hearts with his life example.
Legend has it that he had stigmata and the gift of bilocation, but beyond all that is said about him, what inspires me is his constancy, dedication, and service.
Why?
Because I have discovered — the hard way — that when life hits you hard, what gets you out of it is to hold on to something, and there is nothing like holding on to serve those who are worse off than you because it makes you feel useful and inspires you to keep moving forward.
3. No bird flies high when it is calm. — Wilbur Wright
I read this phrase in T D Jakes Soar’s book!
And I always remind myself of it when the going gets tough because, as TD tells us in his book, “When we are exhausted by dead-end positions, meaningless relationships, and indifferent environments, we are forced to change our lives for the better.”
Tribulation is the engine of progress.
To fly high, you have to have a motive. And often, that reason is to escape from something that hurts too much or overcome a great tragedy that forces you to reinvent yourself.
It has happened to me so many times that even though at the moment my victimizing self takes over me, I review the significant positive changes in my life and realize that they were born out of a horrible and desperate situation 🙂
4. “No truth is ever attained without making fourteen mistakes (or a hundred and fourteen).” — Fyodor Dostoyevsky
This phrase is from Crime and Punishment, the book by the great Dostoyevsky. And it accompanies me every step I take because every step I take, I stumble 🙂
Since childhood, I have always felt that everything costs me much more than others.
There is a phrase of mine from my second book that says, “We are the fingers with which the universe pinches its cheeks to know that it is not dreaming.”
And as fingers of that infinite universe, our function is to pinch and discover what is true. And to find out what is true, we have to make many mistakes. Because fingers don’t have eyes 🙂
So if you are going through a wrong moment right now, I want you to know that you are a seeker, a pioneer, someone indispensable.
And that all your suffering has a meaning that you probably won’t reach to understand, but I want you to know that thanks to it, you are going to bloom much stronger, radiant, and prosperous.
Trust! The universe will not amputate his finger as a Yakuza: the universe has big plans for you.
A virtual hug
AG
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