I watched the movie Invictus the other day. What a powerful and inspiring movie! In one scene Nelson Mandela describes to François Pienaar, the rugby team captain and leader, a poem he used to endure the hardest of days in prison and to rise up to the life he ultimately led. Phrases and words hit home to me during the movie but not until after when I read the entire poem did I really see what it meant.
Your Ideal Life comes from rising above your current situation to become more than you currently see for yourself. This may be in overcoming some serious roadblocks in your path. It may be embracing a cause greater than you alone. It may simply be getting out of a rut and living fully, however that means to you. It may also mean living and leading by the example you set for everyone you influence and inspiring them to rise above as well.
Rise up and live fully!
Yours in health,
Brent
Invictus – by William Ernest Henley
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.