Diamonds In The Rough

[goingonhope]

Diamonds in the Rough

Moral Courage
(Taking Risks)
Mark Twain

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare.

 

[goingonhope]

Diamonds in the Rough

The Seven Sins of the World
(Values)
Mahatma Gandhi

Wealth without work.
Pleasure without conscience.
Knowledge without character
Commerce without morality.
Science without humanity.
Worship without sacrifice.
Politics without principle.

 

[goingonhope]

Diamonds in the Rough

Social Diseases
(Values)
Kurt Hahn

There can be no doubt that the young of today have to be protected against certain poisonous effects inherent in present-day civilization. Five social diseases surround them, even in early childhood. There is the decline in fitness, due to modern methods of locomotion; the decline in initiative, due to the widespread disease of spectatoritis; the decline in care and skill, due to the weakened tradition of craftsmanship; the decline in self-discipline, due to the ever-present availability of tranquilizers and the stimulants; the decline of compassion, which William Temple called "spiritual death."

 

[goingonhope]

Diamonds in the Rough

The Inner Life
(Values)
Joel Goldsmith

It is not what our outer life is. We do not prepare for the acceptance of our spiritual identity merely by trying to change ourselves into good human beings. Being good humanly has no relationship whatsoever to "dying daily." "Dying daily" is a realization that we are dissatisfied with our present mode of life, dissatisfied even if we have economic sufficiency, good health, or a happy family. Still there is that dissatisfaction, that sense of something missing in us. There is an inner unrest, a lack of peace, and inner discontent.

Without this hunger and this inner drive, there is no "dying." But as soon as we make the decision that we are going to walk the way that leads to spiritual fulfillment, we have begun the necessary transformation of mind; we have begun our spiritual journey. First must come the clear-cut realization that we cannot go on being just human beings, and attempt to add God's grace to our humanhood. There must be a turning; there must be an inner transformation. This has nothing to do with our outer life. The change takes place within us. The whole experience is an inner experience; it is one of consciousness, but when it takes place, it affects our entire outer experience.

 

[goingonhope]

Diamonds in the Rough

We Do Not Believe in Ourselves
(Values)
e.e. cummings

We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us something is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.

 

[goingonhope]

Diamonds in the Rough

Wisdom
(Journey)
Lao Tzu

He who knows others is learned, he who knows himself is wise.

***

Peak Achievement
(Journey)
Anonymous

Hulda Crooks, a 91-year-old mountaineer from Loma Linda, California, reached the top of Mount Fuji in Japan at dawn today after a difficult three-day climb. She is the oldest woman to conquer Mount Fuji. Crooks stepped through a special gate marking the top of the sacred 12,385-foot dormant volcano at 3:45 a.m., as a pink sun rose over the horizon and waved an American flag tied to her walking stick. "It's wonderful," she said, bundled in a down jacket at the summit in near-freezing weather. "You always feel good when you made a goal."

 

[goingonhope]

Diamonds in the Rough

Peanut Butter Sermon
(Journey)
anonymous student in 1969

To me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich after an hour or two's row is a damn luxury. A chug of water after an hour's climb up a mountain is a luxury. Jesus! You run a couple of miles and any kind of food is delicious. Yeh, and you deserve it; your body needs it and your mind as well. Use your body, push it, break it. Boy does it feel good afterwards. Use your mind, learn things, acquire new skills. Don't be afraid to make mistakes, you'll learn from them. Till your mind, work your body. They're a team, keep it in shape. Don't sit around for the rest of your life watching TV. All that does is fill your mind with crap, where better more creative thoughts could have been born. Don't waste away your life eating sundaes and driving goddamn automobiles, you'll accomplish nothing, you'll become useless. You'll lose self-respect. Go out, set a goal, fight to reach it. Hurt to reach it. Wow, will you feel good when you're there. Don't run and hide from problems. Strive and suffer to overcome them. So what if you lose a little, think of what you'll have gained. When I get old and I'm lying in my death bed, I'll want to be able to look back and think: You'd never see me sitting on my ass waiting for something nice to come my way; I worked and hurt and sweated for it. Jesus, was I happy when I got it.

 

[goingonhope]

Diamonds in the Rough

The Insecure Camper
(Humor)
Anonymous

For one thing. I forgot my sleeping bag. This hike is too steep and I'm thirsty. That dumb kid in front of me keeps tripping me up, and these boots are making hamburger out of my feet. When I got to the top of Mt. Moosilauke, I froze, because I dropped my sweater in the brook. Everyone says. "You'll laugh about this in five years," but I think that's a truckload of bull.

If you think that's bad, when we did Spree, I got stuck with two jerks in my tent, and I hate frog's legs. It's boiling hot, and we can't swim in the lake and Gypsy moths make me sick. I guess I just had an off day.

 

[goingonhope]

Diamonds in the Rough

Bounders
(Commitment)
Mike Stratton

The immediate challenge is physical. The long-range effects have to do with the heart and the spirit. The course will not be easy! In fact, we provide some discomfort, fear, tension and lots of just plain hard work. But, one way or the other, it will be an important experience you won't forget for a long time to come.

**

Heads and Lives
(Commitment)
Phil Salzman

It's easy to get things into our heads, but it's hard to get them into our lives.

 

[anthony]

It's easy to get things into our heads, but it's hard to get them into our lives.

That is the challenge presented before us all. Managing PTSD is a lifestyle change, like it or not.

 

[goingonhope]

Diamonds in the Rough

The Incentive to Push On Further
(Commitment)
Dag Hammarskjold

Never let success hide its emptiness from you, achievement its nothingness, toil its desolation. And to keep alive the incentive to push on further, that pain in the soul which drives us beyond ourselves. Whither? That I don't know. That I don't ask to know.

 

[goingonhope]

Diamonds in the Rough

Plant Your Own Garden
(Commitment)
Author Unknown

So plant your own garden and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.