Fortunate Friday - Plant and Act

Genuine hope is urgently needed in order to be more loving even as the love of many waxes cold; more merciful, even when misunderstood or misrepresented; more holy, even as the world ripens in iniquity; more courteous and patient in a coarsening and curt world; and more full of heartfelt hope, even when other men’s hearts fail them. Whatever our particular furrow, we are to ‘plow in hope,’ without looking back or letting yesterday hold tomorrow hostage (1 Cor. 9:10).
--Neal A. Maxwell

What would happen if farmers didn't plant anything because they couldn't overcome their fear that nothing would grow?

What would happen if you didn't take an action right now because you couldn't overcome your fear that the outcome would not be what you hoped for?

Today's Fortune: Plant in hope. Act in hope. Hope for the rewards and reap them with gratitude.

(Pretty awesome quote, there, Lindsay, thank you!)

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Tuesday Poetry - Instinct

Is there another world for this frail dust
To warm with life and be itself again?
Something about me daily speaks there must,
And why should instinct nourish hopes in vain?
'Tis nature's prophesy that such will be,
And everything seems struggling to explain
The close sealed volume of its mystery.
Time wandering onward keeps its usual pace
As seeming anxious of eternity,
To meet that calm and find a resting place.
E'en the small violet feels a future power
And waits each year renewing blooms to bring,
And surely man is no inferior flower
To die unworthy of a second spring?

John Clare, The Instinct of Hope

I just love that: "feels a future power". Isn't that what hope is? A power for and over the future?
Beautiful.

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Fortunate Friday - Dawn

I think time is one of the greatest gifts we mortals have been given. Time seems to go on without us and we like to blame time for the consequences of our choices. How many times have you heard someone say 'I wish there was more time in a day!'
I don't wish that at all.
Sometimes, I heartily wish I'd made better use of the time I'd been given, but if I found myself with more time in a day, I'd only continue to squander it.
Time races or slows, given the circumstances - and we like to get upset with that, too, don't we? How often do you hear 'I wish tomorrow would never come.' or the 'I can't wait til Friday!' refrain?
I admit, I've felt these things - and often.
Isn't this a misuse of time, too?

Time is there to help us measure how well we are choosing for ourselves. Look at any productive or truly happy day and it has involved giving our time to our passion or to someone who needed it. Work is a form of happiness that time allots us. We only have so many hours in a day, and when we wisely invest time, it gives us the returns of wealth, happiness, satisfaction, and joy.
Joy.

And time supports our need to renew, to change, to hope. I am glad I have the time I'm given. I don't wish for more because that would be a waste of time. I would rather invest that wish in this moment, being present right now, making today's existence more hopeful and just a little better than yesterday.

Today's Fortune:

Every dawn signs a new contract with existence.

Henri-Frederic Amiel

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Thursday Tips: Free College

Want more education for free? Here is an awesome link:

Lifehacker Free College

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