Encouraged by Strangers

It has been months since I've blogged, and have felt like something was missing. It's interesting that life has a way of proving your deepest convictions! The last several months have been consuming, with little or no time to breathe in between with a severe winter that can dampen (almost literally) the outlook of the most ardent optimist.

In saying that, I must confess that I have often drawn encouragement from watching circumstances unfold in my own life, as well as in the lives of family members and other strangers, some of whom I feel I know by virtue of the amount of information gleaned from their lives. One such stranger is U.S Presidental nominee, Barack Obama. I recently reread a chapter of Senato Obama's book The Audacity of Hope dedicated to politics in general, in which he prolifically comments on the time in his life when he believed he had fought all he could, had given his best years to a cause he believed in, and that he ought to have, at that stage, resign himself to not pursuing the Senate role he so desired.

Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, writes about the uncle of a man he refers to as Mr. Darby. The story refers to how this man sold a piece of property after several attempts at mining his property for mineral reserves, only to have the new owner strike it lucky within an enviable period of time. As it turns out, he had stopped just 3 feet away from the strike spot. One wonders where Senator Obama would be now if he hadn't made the difficult choice to give the opportunity to become a member of the U.S Senate another shot. One thing we know for sure is that we may not be watching history unfold in the one of the most exciting presidential races of all time as America, with it's history of slavery as well as the assertion to be the home of the free prepares to potentially elect into office the first African American president.