Things that make you go hmmmmm

My daughter was laughing at me on the phone yesterday because I was stuck on the floor of our walk-in closet, wedged in between some milk crate file boxes and mountains of paper that I was dividing into smaller piles - Amber, Kristin, Melanie, Shred, File...she asked if I was going to need her to come over and extricate me.

It was an interesting afternoon as I was going through the file folder of old newspaper clippings of all the million wonderful things my dad did in his 83 years, school accomplishments of my three wonderful children, odd papers with little quotes on them, some magazine articles that Tim and I have published over the years, recipes, and old Christmas letters. A true walk down memory lane. Yet, still, after going through everything the one quote that I still find the most compelling of all quotes I've ever read is this one which I'll share with you this evening as a side comment to Tim's previous post. Enjoy.

It is not the critic who counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with sweat and dust and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, if he wins, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt