Providence Moves Too

Be not a slave of your own past - plunge deep into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience, that shall explain and overlook the old.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

My mother ripped this quote out of her day-planner and shoved it into my hand as I left Arizona on Sunday. I like it well enough, I suppose, though I really no nothing of Emerson or his work. I had been digging around in some old boxes in the garage, collecting tragic lost love letters and incriminating photos, when my mother suggested that we burn it all. Burn my past. Let it go forever. I was intrigued, but I declined. I like the thought of everything still intact, just in case. Maybe we will have a barbeque on my next visit.

Personally, I have always loved a quote that I believed was by Goethe, but now it seems that's just not true. Who knows who said this, but I am glad they did.

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”