Enthusiastic Ideas

DISCUSSION (MARCH 15) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/discussion-march-15/ "No discussion between two persons can be of any use, until each knows clearly what it is that the other asserts" (Lewis Carroll). WHEN WE DISCUSS THINGS, WE OFTEN ERR BY TALKING WHEN WE SHOULD BE LISTENING. Taking it for granted that we understand what the other person is saying, we’re primarily concerned with wh...

LIFE (MARCH 14) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/life-march-14/ "Life is a hard fight, a struggle, a wrestling with the principle of evil, hand to hand, foot to foot. Every inch of the way is disputed. The night is given us to take breath and to pray, to drink deep at the fountain of power. The day, to use the strength that has been given us, to go forth to work with it till the evening"...

TRUTH (MARCH 13) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/truth-march-13/ "The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been kindness, beauty, and truth" (Albert Einstein). TRUTH IS NOT THE CREATION OF WEAK PEOPLE’S IMAGINATIONS; IT’S A STRONG AND NOBLE REALITY. Many of those who think it’s intellectually unsophisticated to talk...

SATISFACTION (MARCH 12) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/satisfaction-march-12/ "He is well paid that is well satisfied" (William Shakespeare). MANY THINGS WE MAY NOT HAVE, BUT IF WE HAVE WHAT GIVES US SATISFACTION, WE CAN GIVE THANKS. No two of us are exactly the same, so we’re not going to be satisfied by the same things. Yet the world we live in is so wonderfully varied that there is s...

DEVELOPMENT (MARCH 11) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/development-march-11/ "Those who won our independence believed that the final end of the State was to make men free to develop their faculties" (Justice Louis Brandeis). FREEDOM IS NOT GIVEN TO US FOR SELFISH INDULGENCE; IT’S MEANT TO BE USED IN REACHING OUR POTENTIAL. This is as true of our civil liberties as it is of those that are...

RESTRAINT (MARCH 10) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/restraint-march-10/ "Liberty exists in proportion to wholesome restraint" (Daniel Webster). IF WE THINK FREEDOM WOULD MEAN THE ABSENCE OF ANY RESTRAINTS ON OUR BEHAVIOR, WE’RE HEADED STRAIGHT TOWARD ONE OF LIFE’S GREATEST DISAPPOINTMENTS. It’s nothing but naive to think we can indulge every whim and desire in any way we please, express...

WORK (MARCH 9) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/work-march-9/ "Every man is a consumer, and ought to be a producer. He fails to make his place good in the world unless he not only pays his debt but also adds something to the common wealth" (Ralph Waldo Emerson). TECHNICALLY, “WORK” IS SIMPLY TOIL OR LABOR — IT’S PHYSICAL OR MENTAL EFFORT OR ACTIVITY. But I’d like to suggest that we’d prof...

CREATIVITY (MARCH 8) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/creativity-march-8/ "Man unites himself with the world in the process of creation" (Erich Fromm). WE’RE BORN INTO A PRE-MADE WORLD, BUT WITHIN THE WORLD AS IT WAS WHEN WE GOT HERE, WE’VE GOT THE ABILITY TO MAKE MANY NEW THINGS. Some might say we can’t make anything truly new; we can only do new things with the raw materials already her...

INVENTIVENESS (MARCH 7) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/inventiveness-march-7/ "The most gifted members of the human species are at their creative best when they cannot have their way" (Eric Hoffer). ONE OF THE MOST AMAZING THINGS ABOUT HUMAN BEINGS IS OUR ABILITY TO FIND SOLUTIONS WHEN WE’RE FACED WITH PROBLEMS. Nearly every day, we see evidence, either in our own lives or those of othe...

INNOVATION (MARCH 6) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/innovation-march-6/ "We are more ready to try the untried when what we do is inconsequential. Hence the remarkable fact that many inventions had their birth as toys" (Eric Hoffer). DELIGHTFUL THINGS OFTEN OCCUR WHEN WE’RE WILLING TO TRY SOMETHING NEW. Perhaps that’s why children’s lives are so full of joy: their natural sense of playfu...

CLARITY (MARCH 5) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/clarity-march-5/ "Hold every moment sacred. Give each clarity and meaning, each the weight of thine awareness, each its true and due fulfillment" (Thomas Mann). THERE IS TOO MUCH FUZZINESS IN OUR IDEAS. What should be sharp and clear is often indistinct and cloudy. We need to bring some clarity to the business of living — and also of lovi...

SELFLESSNESS (MARCH 4) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/selflessness-march-4/ "A man cannot enter into the deepest center of himself . . . unless he is able to pass entirely out of himself and give himself to other people in the purity of a selfless love" (Thomas Merton). ONE OF THE GREAT IRONIES OF LIFE IS THAT WE FIND OURSELVES BY LOSING OURSELVES. If we’re so obsessed with what we’ve a...

REINFORCEMENT (MARCH 3) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/reinforcement-march-3/ "What reinforcement we may gain from hope" (John Milton). NONE OF US IS SO STRONG THAT WE DON’T NEED SOME OCCASIONAL REINFORCEMENT. In particular, we need the kind of reinforcement that comes, as Milton suggests, from hope . As the days come and go, our energies wane, our commitments weaken, and our courage fa...

AMAZEMENT (MARCH 2) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/amazement-march-2/ "The true scientist never loses the faculty of amazement" (Hans Selye). WE USE THE WORD “AMAZEMENT” IN A DIFFERENT WAY THAN IT WAS ORIGINALLY USED. In its older sense, amazement meant bewilderment or perplexity (the feeling you’d have if you were lost in a cornfield “maze” or labyrinth). Shakespeare used the word this...

SPORTSMANSHIP (MARCH 1) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/sportsmanship-march-1/ "Everyone admires a good loser — except his wife" (Anonymous). FAILURE COMES IN MANY DIFFERENT FORMS. In any situation, there is more than one test we might fail, more than one way in which our conduct might fall below the level of acceptability. Today, let’s think about the test of “sportsmanship.” At first g...

HANDS (FEBRUARY 29) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/hands-february-29/ "I have met people so empty of joy that when I clasped their frosty fingertips it seemed as if I were shaking hands with a northeast storm. Others there are whose hands have sunbeams in them, so that their grasp warms my heart. It may be only the clinging touch of a child’s hand, but there is as much potential sunshin...

KEYS (FEBRUARY 28) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/keys-february-28/ "Open sesame!" (The Arabian Nights). LOCKED DOORS ARE MYSTERIOUS, AND THE KEYS THAT OPEN THEM HAVE A ROMANTIC AURA ABOUT THEM. I once came across a collection of keys on a brass ring in an antique store, and it was all I could do to keep from buying them. Even without knowing what doors they would have opened, I still f...

SUFFICIENCY (FEBRUARY 27) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/sufficiency-february-27/ "No, 'tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door; but 'tis enough, 'twill serve" (William Shakespeare). SUFFICIENCY IS NO SMALL THING. If what has been provided is “enough” or it’s “adequate,” then we shouldn’t look down on it or fail to be thankful. If we’ve gotten to the point where we feel...

USEFULNESS (FEBRUARY 26) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/usefulness-february-26/ "A useless life is an early death" (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe). WANTING TO BE USEFUL IS A CRUCIAL PART OF OUR NATURE. We may be easily distracted from that desire — and some folks seem to have suppressed the urge altogether — but still it’s true, we want to feel that we’re of significant use to somebody. Ti...

FAVOR (FEBRUARY 25) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/favor-february-25/ "A favour well bestowed is almost as great an honor to him who confers it as to him who receives it" (Richard Steele). FAVOR IS ONE OF THE MOST GRATIFYING THINGS IN LIFE. Whether we think of it as an attitude or an act, it’s always a delightful gift. As an attitude, it’s a gracious, kind, and friendly way of thinking...

ADMONITION (FEBRUARY 24) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/admonition-february-24/ "A friend is one who warns you" (Arabian Proverb). TO “ADMONISH” IS TO REPROVE SOMEONE MILDLY OR KINDLY BUT SERIOUSLY. If a friend admonishes you, that means they caution you about your behavior or counsel you against a dangerous course of action. Because it has a distinctly “disciplinary” ring, admonition m...

DIVERSITY (FEBRUARY 23) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/diversity-february-23/ "The glory of creation is in its infinite diversity" (Gene Roddenberry). IT’S HARD TO LOOK AT THE WORLD WE LIVE IN AND NOT BE INTRIGUED BY ITS INTRICACY. Rather than being one homogeneous substance throughout, it’s made up of billions and billions of separate entities. This world is not a vanilla pudding; it’s...

LEADERSHIP (FEBRUARY 22) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/leadership-february-22/ "He that would be a leader must be a bridge" (Welsh Proverb). IT WOULD BE HARD TO THINK OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, BORN ON THIS DAY, WITHOUT THINKING OF LEADERSHIP. If it hadn’t been for his ability to blaze a trail, both literally and figuratively, our nation might easily have been lost trying to find its freedo...

GLORY (FEBRUARY 21) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/glory-february-21/ "When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over everything" (Harriet Tubman). WE’VE ALL HAD THEM NOW AND THEN: THOSE EXPERIENCES IN WHICH EVERYTHING AROUND US CAME ALIVE AND SEEMED TO SHINE WITH A STRANGE AND WONDERFUL GLORY. Harriet Tubman, one...

PRESENCE (FEBRUARY 20) View on Website -- https://wordpoints.com/presence-february-20/ "Take care and say this with presence of mind" (Terence). PRESENCE OF MIND IS A HARD THING FOR BUSY PEOPLE TO ACHIEVE. The more we do, the less we think about what we do. Most days find us rushing through such a crowded agenda, we have little opportunity to concentrate. When our minds are so urgently pulled forw...