New Beginnings

Commencement speech time has just ended, and those of us who attended graduations, from eighth grade through college and beyond, may have heard one or two or too many!

Still, wherever we are in life, I think we need these pep talks yearly – maybe even daily. And we need them especially to inspire us to persist in critical life-changing missions like gender equality, leadership, and ministry in the Church.

Here are just a few gems I love. Please add more if so inspired:

You’re going to be doing things and you are going to be scared. It’s natural. Everybody is. And when that happens, and it’s going to happen more than once, do me a favor: go back to the days of your childhood, go in the 100 Acre Wood, take a deep breath and just say, “I’m stronger than I seem, I’m braver than I believe, and I’m smarter than I think.” And then go do it.

– James Carville

Now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here.

– Neil Gaiman

Life is not about warming yourself by the fire, life is about building the fire. And generosity is the match…If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap, but if you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody.

– Larry Lucchino

Worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere.

– Erma Bombeck

And more seriously:

Take on big jobs worth doing, jobs like the spread of love, peace, and justice. That means refusing to be seduced by our cultural obsession with being effective as measured by short-term results…Our heroes (i.e. Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela…) take on impossible jobs and stay with them for the long haul because they live by a standard that trumps effectiveness. The name of that standard is ‘faithfulness’ – faithfulness to your gifts, to the needs of the world, and to offering your gifts to whatever needs are within your reach.

– Parker Palmer

And my personal favorite, from Bette Reese:

If you think you are too small to be effective, you have never been in bed with a mosquito.