Hope & Optimism

“While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done, it was done.”
--Helen Keller

For anyone with questions about who Helen Keller was, my daughter offers the following information: She had an illness which made her blind, deaf and mute. As soon as her parents discovered this, they got her a tutor named Ann Sullivan. In one day, Helen learned 60 words with Ann. As Helen grew up she learned Braille and sign language.

No matter how hard you size up the situation to be, and Helen's was pretty difficult, there is hope, there is always hope and sometimes, hope seems to be all you've got.

I get really activated and emotional when I hear people say or imply things like:
"It's too hard."
"It's impossible."
"I can't do it."
"You can't do it."
"It can't be done."
"It just isn't done."
"Don't rock the boat."
"It is wrong or impolite to disagree or speak up or have an opinion or challenge the status quo or confront or negotiate..."

I am grateful that Rosa Parks, the Reverand Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., President Obama, Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez (Si Se Puede) and Mahatma Ghandi didn't buy these negative thoughts or limiting beliefs and managed to inpire others to challenge them too. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of tiny pushes of each honest worker (Helen Keller).

Both are true - it is hard and we are up to the challenge. I am trying to not pathologize my experience when people ask me about school. Now I reply that school is appropriately challenging.

If you have ears to hear, then listen because I want to scream: It is possible, you can do it and I believe in you! Who told you otherwise and what makes you believe it still?

Helen Keller says it best in her following quotes...

Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.

Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement.

No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.

We can do anything we want to if we stick to it long enough.

Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world.

We may have found a cure for most evils; but we have found no remedy for the worst of them all, the apathy of human beings.

The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.

It's wonderful to climb the liquid mountains of the sky. Behind me and before me is God and I have no fears.

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.

Knowledge is love and light and vision.

Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.

When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.

Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.

Faith is the strength by which a shattered world shall emerge into the light.

People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.

All the world is full of suffering. It is also full of overcoming.

One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.

I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.