Author: Anne

This author has written 807 articles

NO REMOTE!

Life has no remote.  Get up and change it yourself.

Quote by Mark  A. Cooper

Mark A. Cooper is ranked alongside Enid Blyton and Anthony Horowitz as “The most original and best spy-kids authors of the century.” (New York Times).  The first book in his Jason Steed series was published in 2008. Since then the series has won over fans across the world with its mix of action, emotion and coming of age originality.

REFLECTION:

  • Are you waiting for someone else to change your movie… your life?
  • With no remote available, what do you need to get up and change?
  • Start today with one change you can do.

BIGGER THAN YOU

The more you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have.

Quote by Norman Vincent Peale

REFLECTION:

  • Have you embraced something bigger than yourself?  What is it?
  • If not, what is something you can engage in the year ahead?
  • If so, how can you embrace it in a larger way – knowing there will be the reward of more energy.

LET THEM NOT SAY

Let them not say: we did not see it.
We saw.

Let them not say: we did not hear it.
We heard.

Let them not say: they did not taste it.
We ate, we trembled.

Let them not say: it was not spoken, not written.
We spoke, we witnessed with voices and hands.

Let them not say: they did nothing.
We did not-enough.

Let them say, as they must say something: 

A kerosene beauty.
It burned.

Let them say we warmed ourselves by it,
read by its light, praised,
and it burned.

Jane Hirshfield is the author of nine collections of poetry, includingThe Beauty: Poems (Alfred A. Knopf, 2015), which was long listed for the National Book Award. She served as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2012 to 2017. This poem was written in 2014.

REFLECTION:

  • As a new year begins, what do you need to see, hear, taste that you have not?
  • Do you feel you have done enough to address the local or global issues?  Will the next generation say you (we) did nothing? 
  • What action do you want to take on – whether environmental, social justice, or political issues in the coming year?