On realizing your potential

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?

On leading with love

No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

On removing bitterness from your heart

Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies. 

If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.

On forgiveness  – Desmond Tutu reminded us that suffering embitters some people but ennobles others. Suffering ennobled Mandela.

As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn’t leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I’d still be in prison.

On holding onto the freedom to choose

He always made the point, if they say you must run, insist on walking.
If they say you must walk fast, insist on walking slowly.That was the whole point.We are going to set the terms.          fellow prisoner

This is the poem that got him through prison. Words are never just words.

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

~ Invictus, by William Ernest Henley.

 

What can we do?

Lead with love. Be the captain of your soul.