Learning to Get Back Up
Bringing a giraffe into the world is a tall order. A baby giraffe falls 10
feet from its mother's womb and usually lands on its back. Within
seconds it rolls over and tucks its legs under its body. From this position
it considers the world for the first time and shakes off the last vestiges
of the birthing fluid from its eyes and ears. Then the mother giraffe rudely
introduces its offspring to the reality of life.
In his book, A View from the Zoo, Gary Richmond describes how a
newborn giraffe learns its first lesson.
The mother giraffe lowers her head long enough to take a quick look.
Then she positions herself directly over her calf. She waits for about a
minute, and then she does the most unreasonable thing. She swings her
long, pendulous leg outward and kicks her baby, so that it is sent
sprawling head over heels.
When it doesn't get up, the violent process is repeated over and over
again. The struggle to rise is momentous. As the baby calf grows tired,
the mother kicks it again to stimulate its efforts. Finally, the calf
stands for the first time on its wobbly legs.
Then the mother giraffe does the most remarkable thing. She kicks it off
its feet again. Why? She wants it to remember how it got up. In the wild,
baby giraffes must be able to get up as quickly as possible to stay with
the herd, where there is safety. Lions, hyenas, leopards, and wild hunting
dogs all enjoy young giraffes, and they'd get it too, if the mother didn't
teach her calf to get up quickly and get with it.
The late Irving Stone understood this. He spent a lifetime studying
greatness, writing novelized biographies of such men as Michelangelo,
Vincent van Gogh, Sigmund Freud, and Charles Darwin.
Stone was once asked if he had found a thread that runs through the
lives of all these exceptional people. He said, "I write about people who
sometime in their life have a vision or dream of something that should be
accomplished and they go to work.
"They are beaten over the head, knocked down, vilified, and for years
they get nowhere. But every time they're knocked down they stand up.
You cannot destroy these people. And at the end of their lives they've
accomplished some modest part of what they set out to do."
Craig B. Larson
Adapted from "Illustrations for Preaching &
Teaching from Leadership Journal
Baker Books
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
- Robert Frost
Attitude Determines Attitude
I woke up early today, excited over all I get to do before the clock
strikes midnight. I have responsibilities to fulfill today. I am important.
My job is to choose what kind of day I am going to have.
Today I can complain because the weather is rainy or I can be
thankful that the grass is getting watered for free.
Today I can feel sad that I don't have more money or I can be glad
that my finances encourage me to plan my purchases wisely and
guide me away from waste.
Today I can grumble about my health or I can rejoice that I am
alive.
Today I can lament over all that my parents didn't give me when I
was growing up or I can feel grateful that they allowed me to be
born.
Today I can cry because roses have thorns or I can celebrate that
thorns have roses.
Today I can mourn my lack of friends or I can excitedly embark
upon a quest to discover new relationships.
Today I can whine because I have to go to work or I can shout for
joy because I have a job to do.
Today I can complain because I have to go to school or eagerly
open my mind and fill it with rich new tidbits of knowledge.
Today I can murmur dejectedly because I have to do housework
or I can feel honored because the Lord has provided shelter for my
mind, body and soul.
Today stretches ahead of me, waiting to be shaped. And here I
am, the sculptor who gets to do the shaping.
What today will be like is up to me. I get to choose what kind of
day I will have!
- Author Unknown
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