TURNS AND TONES

Waiting our turn changes our tone.

There is a time when we are shadowed and sheltered because the weather isn't fair enough for us to manifest what we possess deep within. So, billows of clouds accumulate and descend. Even then, however, others sense our presence but not our essence, our capacity to convey transcendence, going beyond what blocks them. Still, our light is yet dim. Yet "dim" must be endured if we want to be assured a place in the sun, which can only happen when our time comes. So many, however, believe that theirs has passed. So they live in the past, punishing their promise and potential, both of which are fundamental if our lives are to be guides for others to follow. If not, we live with circumstances which, metaphorically speaking, are hard to swallow.

TYING KNOTS

If it doesn't work keep working because you aren't finished.

It will work, especially if we are at our end. Most of us fail, however, because we aren't. On the contrary, many of us refuse to entangle in the interim knots that are inevitable. So, we double our dilemma by tying one in the middle, upholding what hinders our success.

SUCCESS AND SANITY

No one smiles when a friend is ill.

Sanity demands that we laugh at ourselves. In fact laughter heals the soul, according to Solomon. But if it persists it could signal sickness, because sane people don't let years lapse without pursuing their dreams. Nor do they don apish grins when asked about their goals. If so, their laughter is sickness not salutary. Sane people don't use humor to hide their hurts or to silence their haunts (indefinitely at least). This is a tactic of the insane who use mirth to mask their lunacy. Yet beneath their hearty humor is a hurting child in need of healing.

ON CONCEIT

Imagine having no habit that required no concern. Imagine being flawless and debt-free. How would you handle this mantle? Is conceit as inevitable as we say when too many things go our way? Or can we be accomplished without being tarnished thereby?

THE BLOCK

Rappers blame "the block" excessively. Everything fierce happens here. Girls get pregnant and guys get murdered for being on the wrong corner wearing the wrong colors. Metaphorically, the phrase conveys the miseries of poverty and the pursuit of fleeting gains. Other artists exploit "the hood" instead, stoking its streets with beats that embellish its quality.

LIVING PROOF

Living proof is harder than finding it. Hence, its rarity. Even so, some people are living proof despite the pressures that discourage. When they emerge they discipline our urge to deny our duty to embody.

DEBT AND DESTINY

Wishing is risky when destiny is listening.

Destiny demands what debtors don't, and isn't as willing to settle our account. In fact it sours when ignored and sabotages when denied. Though sympathetic, it rejects substitutes and insists on itself. Only by yielding do we appease it. Until then interest accrues and penalties punish us, though superficially our pursuits please us. In this regard, not even success soothes as we assert unless it serves destiny's ends.

OUR DEPICTIONS

Desire depicts what we invent for ourselves.

Desire dwells above demands that betray its aims. It yields occasionally yet maintains its distance until it accomplishes its intentions, enduring whatever denies its passion, accomplishing with patience what others abandon.

FAR ENOUGH

We seldom go far enough save to see others perform. Meanwhile our dreams remain still-born. We behave as if others are inherently better because we gather in coliseums and stadiums where we experiene the mayhem of greatness, and the sense of excitement that we desire for our lives; even if we don't want it to be that size. What matters is the sizzle.

ON FEARLESSNESS

A certain fear reinforces fearlessness. It may not be apparent but it is important to know. Otherwise we'll attribute a purity to bravery that nurtures cowardice.

EVERY STORY

Grit grows in dirt.

Every story strikes once it's told. In fact all of us could amaze if we could emerge from ourselves. In this regard, no success is one of a kind, but simply one of many possibilities. After all, J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter), could have very easily quit when trouble crushed.

DATING DESTINY

DESTINY FAVORS MONOGAMY. CELIBACY AND RESOLVE

What is your type? We're all supposed to have one. How do you like your dream --tall and dark or short and easy? Have you found one marriage-worthy or are you still waiting? If so, don't be rushed or ridiculed into choosing. Trust destiny instead to deliver.

ON DECK

Are you on deck or at the desk? Have you a bat or are you still doing the undesirable? If the desk is the deck, then continue to sit. If not, how will you hit? Places matter, else there would be no batter's box.

ON FRICTION

I have sat for days waiting for dawn to wave its wand over my life.

Friction is the option least taken. Given a choice, we refuse to chase what chafes. So, we pursue what chastens instead, chasing in leisure the excellence of others. Hence, our obsession with celebrity culture. How different would things be if we were as interested in ourselves as we are in these? Being so doesn't mean that we couldn't peek occasionally. But it would require us to own more honestly our charge, however hard the task or long the climb.

CROSSING OVER

Threaten fear and it will cheer us on.

Thresholds threaten but can't prevent our entry unless we doubt our chances. If so, we remain on the verge resisting the urge to crossover.

DIFFERENT AND DIFFERENCES

We influence others by being stronger than our fears.

Different is preference pursued. We become this when we decide what we want to accomplish. Influence follows as we forge beyond our fears. The impact we make doesn’t always take as long as we imagine, especially if we are impassioned. There is no magic but our habits and in how we apply ourselves.

OUR DREAMS

Watch your tone lest you miss your time when it comes.

Dreams age but do not die. They often limp but seldom leave. We see their reflection in our failures and experience their power in our persistence. The movies we watch and the music we love illustrates their essence. Without dreams, nothing would move and life would malign.

FOR DREAMERS ONLY

A NIGHT OF TRANSFORMATION!

FRIDAY, AUGUST 28TH @7PM

Spirit Square

345 North College Street

Come hear "the voice of greatness" Joel Bryant discuss keys to change from his latest book, For Dreamers Only.

*FREE FOOD*

**LIVE MUSIC**

**NETWORKING**

RSVP AT joel@joelbryant1.com

**A PORTION OF THE PROCEEDS WILL BENEFIT CROSSROADS CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL.

DOING THE DREAM

The nineties are gone and the millennium is here. Are you doing the dream? Are you keeping the vows you made to yourself? If not, it's time. Of course, anyone who has ever tried to succeed knows that doing so is easier on paper than it is in practice. Countless delays and confounding details guard the gate of greatness preventing our entry. Yet despite opposition our potential remains. It prods us at night and provokes us from a nap, saying, "You can do better than this."

Unfortunately, however, many of us ignore its voice and renounce our vision. We spend our lives helping others fulfill theirs instead. We do for them what we are unwilling to do for ourselves –believe in our own greatness. Some of us have good reasons for neglecting our dreams. Marriage can distract and divorce can crush. Even so, our potential remains. It acknowledges our reasons but rejects them. Admiration of others and frustration with ourselves is its way of saying, "You can do better than this."

That's why we must challenge ourselves. Friends can encourage and others can inspire but ultimately we must be willing to pursue our dreams. Else, we make life unfair and ourselves seem feebler than we are. Worst of all, we live defeated.

What if our employers had been as timid? What if homebuilders and childcare providers had been afraid to open their doors? Where would we live and work? Who would keep our children? Instead of exalting our fears we should consider these facts. Everything, after all, begins with a dream, which, fear denies and failure frustrates. But that's where faith helps and counsel strengthens. The key, however, is to do the dream, to not let life pass and death swallow before we do. So, let this be the year that you do the dream.