Good riddance 2008. We heard it from everyone, and even thought it ourselves.
Everyone seems to have a new hope and anticipation for the New Year that somewhere, someone is going to make things better for us.
With that same hope and energy, My Friends, I challenge you, to get into the Storm, and make it better for yourself this year.
There is a Divine Destiny in all of us. We have a multitude of excuses why our lives at this point are not the way we would like them to be. Not every situation is of course an excuse, maybe we have just become so beaten down by the demands of daily life, we find it hard to find the hours in a day to change anything.
Operate on clear truth, not a foggy one. Hope in the new administration, but do not wait for it to solve your lot in life. They too will be evicted in a few short years. Get into the Storm, without fear, and start to pursue those things in life that you know are yours.
Find the courage to let go of things that are long past in your life. Let go of things, that are holding you back. Today is the tomorrow we used to dream about and talk about. You have been fully equipped to fufill your destiny in this life, and there is a voice inside you that keeps telling you that. This year, listen to that voice.
Many of our loved ones did not make it to the new year. If they could come back for one moment, what would they urge us do with the time we have left?
When the lepers reached the far outskirts of the vast sea of the black tents of Kedar at the Syrian border, they might have hesitated; half-convinced they would be arrow-shot on sight. They could smell the food cooking on hundreds of different cooking fires.
Perhaps the four chose the youngest and most mobile of the group to sneak up closer to the campfires and give a report. When he finally shuffled back to their hiding spot, he confirmed what their noses and growling bellies already told them.
The Syrians had some meat cooking on the barbecue grill-it looked like they had lamb on the menu that night. Maybe the campfires also had big batches of lentils simmering; the candles were lit to ward off the growing darkness of twilight. "I think everybody is eating right now-maybe they are all in their tents. No one was hanging around the campfires," the scout said.
All four of these lepers were hungry,they hadn't eaten anything in days, and they hadn't eaten well since their diagnosis long ago, much less the seven-year famine. The economy had been bad for years, and their life, well, you could say it really stunk....Once the scout made his report, the other three lepers became even more stressed out.
How long could they stand to stay hidden on the outskirts of the camp, only a matter of a few yards from the feast of their lives? They were at the point of starvation, and probably insanity too. Finally, they just couldn't take it anymore. One of the lepers tells the others:
"You know, maybe they are sitting in their tents, and when we walk over there they just might shoot us in the back with arrows. Do we really care? At least we have a chance to get something to eat before we die."
Then one of them must have said,
"Well you know what? I'm going to go in. If they kill me, they kill me. But I refuse to let those lamb ribs burn on that grill!"
And the other one said,
"Ok, if you go, I will go too"
You have to admit there are some admirable characteristics about these four lepers. For one thing, those four men came to the point where they said, "Enough is enough!"
These lepers realized that if they died ( something changed ), they would not be much worse off if they lived( if things kept going the way they were). They decided that it was worth the risk of death (facing their fears), in order to do what was most important to them. For them it was getting something they needed that was not that far out of reach, but for any of us, it could just as easily be finding a better job, going back to school, or simply spending more time at home.
Have you had enough? Have you truly gotten to the point to say, I don't care-I have to do this?
To view a clearer more readable image, click on the image above to a link to view the full size image. If anyone would like any other pages or content from this book. please let me know and I will do my best to upload them for you. The copy I have does have some few pages missing but is mostly intact.
*When a vowel would in our modern usage be followed by an "m" or "n", this was sometimes indicated by the vowel-macron, or the vowel with a horizontal line over it, and the "m" or "n" was omitted.
"Man is his own star; and the soul that can Render an honest and a perfect man, Commands all light, all influence, all fate; Nothing to him falls early or too late. Our acts our angels are, or good or ill, Our fatal shadows that walk by us still."
Self-reliance was the hallmark of the American people for most of this country's history. Our forefathers had to have very high self-reliance skills or we would not be here today. Only in the last few decades have we slipped into the complacent position of letting someone else take care of us. From government agencies like the USDA and FEMA to private organizations like the AAA, many of us have been lead down the primrose path of expecting others to take care of us and even do our thinking.
Simple little things like safely changing a tire, basic First Aid, home repairs, and self-protection are some of the more mundane every-day things everyone should have some knowledge of.
Whether it's reducing the likelihood of being a victim of crime, or preparing for bad weather, a few survival skills can help you be much more self-reliant. A few self-reliance skills can do wonders for one's feeling of self-worth.
prov·i·dence (prv-dns, -dns)
NOUN:
Care or preparation in advance; foresight.
Prudent management; economy.
The care, guardianship, and control exercised by a deity; divine direction: "Some sought the key to history in the working of divine providence" (William Ebenstein).
This word comes from Latin providentia "foresight, prudence", from pro- "ahead" + videre "to see". The current meaning of the word (Divine Providence) derives from the sense "knowledge of the future" or omniscience, which is the privilege of God. The initial meaning of providere remains in 'to provide' = "to take precautionary measures".
Destiny refers to a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual. It is a concept based on the belief that there is a fixed natural order to the universe.
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