3 May 2010

(continued from FaceBook) It is when we decide to face our fears that we discover our true courage,
our tremendous strength, and as a result, our confidence is lifted to new levels. When we make a conscious choice to stand and face the things that we fear, we discover that what we feared is not really that frightening. Most of our fears are mental concepts that we have embraced and accepted as part of our psyche. These fears are nothing more than imagined crisis. Within each of us is a will to survive and a desire to achieve. By facing our fears of the unknown we allow those innate drives to prevail and our lives, and usually the lives of those we touch, are vastly improved.

MY DIVING:
As I get ready for another summer of diving I find myself reviewing and reflecting on my dives from last year and noting the highlights and the lowlights. Every dive has something that was fantastic; and every dive has an element that can be improved. I try to find one of those little elements that need improving and work on it. I make an effort to change a bad habit into a good habit one at a time. By changing one thing at a time and not working on many it becomes easier to change those lowlights into highlights. With more highlights than lowlights it is easier and easier to dive safely. Each bad habit that gets changed into a good habit is another step toward a safe and event-free summer of diving.

MY FAITH:

One of my favorite readings on faith comes from a book "Sobriety and Beyond". "The price of real maturity in life is a realization of the mistakes we have made. You young men will be really mature the day you look back on your life and cry out: 'My God, what a mess I've made of things!' That day will be a great day for you, but it will be a day, too, when only a real deep humility will enable you, despite the mess of the past, to go forward and do life's work."

"'My God, what a mess I've made of things!' As I look back how pitiful is the good done, how sparing my help to others, how innumerable my mistakes, the wrongs, how all-pervading my self-seeking! How seamy the finished product."

"Is such realization discouraging? Absolutely, unless--unless I fall on my knees and humbly admit it all to God, with a heartfelt thanks that He knows and understands and will make allowance, full allowance, for my pitiful human frailty. What else coule He--or I--expect? Then from my knees I arise and face the future, trusting far less in myself than ever before, and throwing my full weight on God, knowing that it will be an easy burden for omnipotence."

We have given our mistakes a name--we call it experience. Without mistakes to learn from, we can gain no experience. We must try. If we fail to try, we have simply failed. However, a gallant attempt, even though it may end in failure, is still a step toward success. We must be willing to make that attempt, and we must be willing to fail in that attempt before true success can be achieved. Placing our trust and faith in our God we can be great in anything and everything we try. We may not always succeed, but we will always know we tried and did our best.

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