MORNING COFFEE

[Guest guest]

Prevail in Spite of Fear

by Jane “Accept fear and forge ahead in spite of it.†When we deny the fear inside, we keep it lurking there. It remains in our minds, quietly holding us back from reaching new goals or fully experiencing new opportunities. Accept your fear – there’s nothing shameful in it. Next time you shy away from a situation, stop and say to yourself, “I’m scared, but I’m still going to do it!†As you acknowledge your feelings and keep going forward in spite of them, your self-worth and self-confidence will rise. The adrenaline from fear will change to the excitement of anticipation. Suddenly, you’ll realize the emotion you’re feeling has turned into sheer enthusiasm!

A DESIRE TO HELPOne mother was jogging through the park, pushing two toddlers in a stroller. As they approached a hill, she said, "OK, now I need you to help me." And they did! As she started up the hill, they each said, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. . ."Sometimes it just takes the desire to help and you can find a way.One person known for his desire to help was Fiorello LaGuardia. LaGuardia was mayor of New York City during the worst days of the Great Depression and all of WWII. He was adored by many New Yorkers who took to calling him the "Little Flower," because of his name and the fact that he was so short and always wore a carnation in his lapel.In many ways, LaGuardia was bigger than life - he rode the New York City fire trucks, raided city "speakeasies" with the police department, took entire orphanages to baseball games and, when the New York newspapers went on strike, he got on the radio and read the Sunday funnies to the kids.One bitterly cold night in January of 1935, the mayor turned up at a night court that served the poorest ward of the city. LaGuardia dismissed the judge for the evening and took over the bench himself. Within a few minutes, a tattered old woman was brought before him, charged with stealing a loaf of bread. She told LaGuardia that her daughter's husband had deserted her, her daughter was sick, and her two grandchildren were starving.But the shopkeeper, from whom the bread was stolen, refused to drop the charges. "It's a real bad neighborhood, Your Honor," the man told the mayor. "She's got to be punished to teach other people around here a lesson."LaGuardia sighed. He turned to the woman and said, "I've got to punish you. The law makes no exceptions. Ten dollars or ten days in jail." But even as he pronounced sentence, the mayor was already reaching into his pocket. He extracted a bill and tossed it into his famous hat, saying, "Here is the ten dollar fine which I now remit; and furthermore, I am going to fine everyone in this courtroom fifty cents for living in a town where a person has to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat. Mr. Bailiff, collect the fines and give them to the defendant."The following day, New York City newspapers reported that $47.50 was turned over to a bewildered woman who had stolen a loaf of bread to feed her starving grandchildren. Fifty cents of that amount was contributed by the grocery store owner himself, while some seventy petty criminals, people with traffic violations, and New York City policemen, each of whom had just paid fifty cents for the privilege of doing so, gave the mayor a standing ovation.Sometimes it just takes the desire to help and you can find a way.Someone beautifully said, "Sympathy sees and says, 'I'm sorry.' Compassion sees and says, 'I'll help.'" When we learn the difference, we will make a difference.Steve Goodier

Critical link

You are the critical link between what is possible and what is real. With your actions, you can bring to life the best of what can be.

Life is awash with great and wonderful possibilities. Yet possibilities alone are not enough.

Someone has to follow those great possibilities, and work at them, and breathe meaningful life into them. In your world, that someone is you.

Celebrate your good fortune of being connected to life’s best possibilities. And even as you celebrate, get to work doing what must be done to make those possibilities happen.

The possibilities are so valuable precisely because of what you can do with them. So by all means, do with them what you know you can do.

For it is in choosing your own unique possibilities and making them real, that you experience true fulfillment. Get up, get going, and enjoy that fulfillment in great abundance.

Ralph Marston

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