Ups and Downs Continue

The exchange year continues to be like a roller coaster. Right now we seem to be in one of the valleys. So allow me to share an excerpt from a book I picked up when Mike and I made a trip to Arizona in November. The title is "Keep Going: The Art of Perseverance." It's written by a Lokata Indian, Joseph M. Marshall III.

The grandfather in the book speaks to his grandson:

Photo Attribution: CC BY 3.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20047214

"When I was a young man," he said, "the last wolf in the part of the country was hunted down and killed. The newcomers to this land brought their long-held fears of the wold with them. The newcomers thought, and still think, that the wolf was successful because he loved to kill and was good at it. To them, he was evil and had to be killed. They didn't realize that he failed more than he succeeded. He went hungry eight or nine times out of ten because his prey got away. When he finally succeeded the tenth time, he satisfied his hunger. What others saw as a lust for killing was really perseverance. That was the secret of his success: He never quit." 

And in a paragraph soon following, he says,

"...losing can weaken our spirit, and dampen our enthusiasm for putting forth effort...As the wolf learned long ago, of the many rewards for winning, two are most important:

Victory obscures loss, and it replenishes the spirit."

Stay the course, my son. Just 113. 

Love, Mom.