As we drove down the turnpike, the rain and sleet melted the snow that had previously dressed the fields and hills in white.
I was very tired, traveling on only one hour of sleep, but I didn't have to drive, and the chatter from my sister, her fiance and my mother kept me awake during the six hour drive to Long Island.
The other thing that kept me awake during the long drive was a recent gift I had received from our friend, Stephen Alcorn. He is a well-known print artist who sometimes collaborates with authors to make books. Recently he had completed a book filled with 365 inspiring quotes from his favorite heroes, one for each day of the year. Each spread listed several quotes on one page and had one of his elegant portraits of a historical icon on the other. It was the perfect inspiration to come across the night before my journey. I read every single quote as we waited in traffic in New York City to cross the bridge to Long Island.
The book jacket reads:
The society in which we live has been, and continues to be, inspired by visionaries and heroes from all walks of life: activists and artists, athletes and writers, inventors and explorers, healers and politicians, musicians and moguls. Our world's visionaries and heroes challenge assumptions, push boundaries, and inspire the ordinary to become extraordinary, thereby shaping our world each and every day.
Here were some of my favorites that seemed extra special to read the night before I embarked on the most challenging endeavor of my life so far:
"I don't know whether I can, but I'll try." -Betsy Ross
"Not all who wander are lost." - J.R.R. Tolkien
"The creative process is not controlled by a switch you can simply turn on or off; it's with you all the time." - Alvin Ailey, Jr.
"I am not afraid... I was born to do this." -Joan of Arc
"When you do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world." -George Washington Carver
"I think when you move past your fear and you go after your dreams wholeheartedly, you become free. Know what I'm saying? Move past the fear." - LL Cool J
"Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?" - Benjamin Franklin
"Mars is there, waiting to be reached." - Buzz Aldrin
"Life is always a tightrope or a feather bed. Give me the tightrope." -Edith Wharton
"We know the road to freedom has always been stalked by death." -Angela Davis
"I'd like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free and wanted other people to be free." -Rosa Parks
"To write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write." -Gertrude Stein
"And moreover, to succeed, the artist must possess the courageous soul... the brave soul. The soul that dares and defies." - Kate Chopin
"I was always afraid of dying. Always. It was my fear that made me learn everything I could about my airplane and my emergency equipment, and kept me flying respectful of my machine and always alert in the cockpit." - Chuck Yeager
"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." - Steve Jobs
"You've got to know your limitations. I don't know what your limitations are. I found out what mine were when I was twelve. I found out that there weren't too many limitations, if I did it my way." - Johnny Cash
"I worked hard. Anyone who works as hard as I did can achieve the same results." - J.S. Bach
"Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well." - Vincent van Gogh
"The real secret of success is enthusiasm." - Walter Percy Chrysler
"We should be inspired by people... who show that human beings can be kind, brave, generous, beautiful, strong--even in the most difficult circumstances." - Rachel Corrie
"The works must be conceived with fire in the soul but executed with clinical coolness." -Joan Miro
"A problem is a chance to do your best." - Duke Ellington
"The world is put back by the death of every one who has to sacrifice the development of his or her peculiar gifts to conventionality." - Florence Nightengale
"America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination, and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand." - Harry Truman
"Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric." - Bertrand Russell
"If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it." - Margaret Fuller
"If now isn't a good time for the truth, I don't see when we'll get to it." - Nikki Giovanni
"The artist is an educator of artists of the future... who are able to understand and in the process of understanding perform unexpected--the best--evolutions." - Saul Steinberg
"I don't work at being ordinary." - Paul McCartney
"You don't just accidentally show up in the World Series." - Derek Jeter
"Courage is grace under pressure." - Ernest Hemingway
"For mythology is the handmaid of literature; and literature is one of the best allies of virtue and promoters of happiness." - Thomas Bullfinch
"It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves." - Sir Edmund Hillary
"Enthusiasm towards one's goal lessens the disagreeableness of working toward it." - Thomas Eakins
"I think I did pretty well, considering I started out with nothing but a bunch of blank paper." - Steve Martin
"Writing is nothing more than a guided dream." - Jorge Luis Borges
"I carry a notebook with me everywhere... But that's only the first step." - Rita Dove
"Write what you like. There is no other rule." - O. Henry
"You hit home runs not by chance but by preparation." - Roger Maris
"We all have idols. Play like anyone you care about but try to be yourself while you're doing it." - B.B. King
"Destiny has a lot to do with it, but so do you. You have to persevere, you have to insist." - Andrea Bocelli
"Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or your predecessors. Try to be better than yourself." - William Faulkner
"A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world." - Oscar Wilde
"Enthusiasm is everything. It must be taut and vibrating like a guitar string." - Pele
"Any human anywhere will blossom in a hundred unexpected talents and capacities simply by being given the opportunity to do so." - Doris Lessing
"He who seeks rest finds boredom. He who seeks work finds rest." - Dylan Thomas
"What the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth." - John Keats
"A page of my journal is like a cake of portable soup. A little may be diffused into a considerable portion." - James Boswell
"It is always with excitement that I wake up in the morning wondering what my intuition will toss up to me, like gifts from the sea. I work with it and rely upon it. It's my partner." - Jonas Salk
"In the depths of winter I finally learned that there within me lay an invincible summer." - Albert Camus
"I delight in what I fear." - Shirley Jackson
"Inspiration is an awakening, a quickening of all man's faculties, and it is manifested in all high artistic achievements." - Giacomo Puccini
"All men of whatsoever quality they be, who have done anything of excellence, or which may properly resemble excellence, ought, if they are persons of truth and honesty, to describe their life with their own hand." -Benvenuto Cellini
The next day the journey began.
I was very tired, traveling on only one hour of sleep, but I didn't have to drive, and the chatter from my sister, her fiance and my mother kept me awake during the six hour drive to Long Island.
The other thing that kept me awake during the long drive was a recent gift I had received from our friend, Stephen Alcorn. He is a well-known print artist who sometimes collaborates with authors to make books. Recently he had completed a book filled with 365 inspiring quotes from his favorite heroes, one for each day of the year. Each spread listed several quotes on one page and had one of his elegant portraits of a historical icon on the other. It was the perfect inspiration to come across the night before my journey. I read every single quote as we waited in traffic in New York City to cross the bridge to Long Island.
The book jacket reads:
The society in which we live has been, and continues to be, inspired by visionaries and heroes from all walks of life: activists and artists, athletes and writers, inventors and explorers, healers and politicians, musicians and moguls. Our world's visionaries and heroes challenge assumptions, push boundaries, and inspire the ordinary to become extraordinary, thereby shaping our world each and every day.
Here were some of my favorites that seemed extra special to read the night before I embarked on the most challenging endeavor of my life so far:
"I don't know whether I can, but I'll try." -Betsy Ross
"Not all who wander are lost." - J.R.R. Tolkien
"The creative process is not controlled by a switch you can simply turn on or off; it's with you all the time." - Alvin Ailey, Jr.
"I am not afraid... I was born to do this." -Joan of Arc
"When you do the common things of life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world." -George Washington Carver
"I think when you move past your fear and you go after your dreams wholeheartedly, you become free. Know what I'm saying? Move past the fear." - LL Cool J
"Hide not your talents. They for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?" - Benjamin Franklin
"Mars is there, waiting to be reached." - Buzz Aldrin
"Life is always a tightrope or a feather bed. Give me the tightrope." -Edith Wharton
"We know the road to freedom has always been stalked by death." -Angela Davis
"I'd like to be remembered as a person who wanted to be free and wanted other people to be free." -Rosa Parks
"To write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write is to write." -Gertrude Stein
"And moreover, to succeed, the artist must possess the courageous soul... the brave soul. The soul that dares and defies." - Kate Chopin
"I was always afraid of dying. Always. It was my fear that made me learn everything I could about my airplane and my emergency equipment, and kept me flying respectful of my machine and always alert in the cockpit." - Chuck Yeager
"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." - Steve Jobs
"You've got to know your limitations. I don't know what your limitations are. I found out what mine were when I was twelve. I found out that there weren't too many limitations, if I did it my way." - Johnny Cash
"I worked hard. Anyone who works as hard as I did can achieve the same results." - J.S. Bach
"Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well." - Vincent van Gogh
"The real secret of success is enthusiasm." - Walter Percy Chrysler
"We should be inspired by people... who show that human beings can be kind, brave, generous, beautiful, strong--even in the most difficult circumstances." - Rachel Corrie
"The works must be conceived with fire in the soul but executed with clinical coolness." -Joan Miro
"A problem is a chance to do your best." - Duke Ellington
"The world is put back by the death of every one who has to sacrifice the development of his or her peculiar gifts to conventionality." - Florence Nightengale
"America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination, and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand." - Harry Truman
"Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric." - Bertrand Russell
"If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it." - Margaret Fuller
"If now isn't a good time for the truth, I don't see when we'll get to it." - Nikki Giovanni
"The artist is an educator of artists of the future... who are able to understand and in the process of understanding perform unexpected--the best--evolutions." - Saul Steinberg
"I don't work at being ordinary." - Paul McCartney
"You don't just accidentally show up in the World Series." - Derek Jeter
"Courage is grace under pressure." - Ernest Hemingway
"For mythology is the handmaid of literature; and literature is one of the best allies of virtue and promoters of happiness." - Thomas Bullfinch
"It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves." - Sir Edmund Hillary
"Enthusiasm towards one's goal lessens the disagreeableness of working toward it." - Thomas Eakins
"I think I did pretty well, considering I started out with nothing but a bunch of blank paper." - Steve Martin
"Writing is nothing more than a guided dream." - Jorge Luis Borges
"I carry a notebook with me everywhere... But that's only the first step." - Rita Dove
"Write what you like. There is no other rule." - O. Henry
"You hit home runs not by chance but by preparation." - Roger Maris
"We all have idols. Play like anyone you care about but try to be yourself while you're doing it." - B.B. King
"Destiny has a lot to do with it, but so do you. You have to persevere, you have to insist." - Andrea Bocelli
"Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or your predecessors. Try to be better than yourself." - William Faulkner
"A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world." - Oscar Wilde
"Enthusiasm is everything. It must be taut and vibrating like a guitar string." - Pele
"Any human anywhere will blossom in a hundred unexpected talents and capacities simply by being given the opportunity to do so." - Doris Lessing
"He who seeks rest finds boredom. He who seeks work finds rest." - Dylan Thomas
"What the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth." - John Keats
"A page of my journal is like a cake of portable soup. A little may be diffused into a considerable portion." - James Boswell
"It is always with excitement that I wake up in the morning wondering what my intuition will toss up to me, like gifts from the sea. I work with it and rely upon it. It's my partner." - Jonas Salk
"In the depths of winter I finally learned that there within me lay an invincible summer." - Albert Camus
"I delight in what I fear." - Shirley Jackson
"Inspiration is an awakening, a quickening of all man's faculties, and it is manifested in all high artistic achievements." - Giacomo Puccini
"All men of whatsoever quality they be, who have done anything of excellence, or which may properly resemble excellence, ought, if they are persons of truth and honesty, to describe their life with their own hand." -Benvenuto Cellini
The next day the journey began.
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