Delene

“Suppressing a smile isn’t easy. The happiness always creeps out somehow. But sadness can be stashed under the skin like a dark secret. It doesn’t need tears to make its presence felt”
― A.M. Shine, The Watchers

“Personal leadership is cultivating the wisdom to recognize our need for renewal and to ensure that each week provides activities that are genuinely re-creational in nature”
― Stephen R. Covey, First Things First Every Day: Daily Reflections- Because Where You're Headed Is More Important Than How Fast You Get There

“In this high place you may see two powers that are opposed one to another; and ever they strive now in thought, but whereas the light perceives the very heart of the darkness, it's own secret has not been discovered. Not yet.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

“Would you be surprised if I should tell you that I, too, have had periods of perplexity, uncertainty, and doubt; that I, too, have known the darkness, fogginess, and chill of the valley which lies between illuminated peaks of faith and confidence, and that only the memory of the hilltops along the road over which I have come coupled with the somewhat misty vision of others still ahead has given me the courage to plod on when I was tempted to “chuck it all,” to wrap myself in the comfortless blanket of doubt and self commiseration and just quit the field.
Well I have had that experience. But this I can say positively, that each peak which I have climbed has seemed higher and more inspiring than the last, due at least in part, I think, to the dark background of the valley through which I came. Sharp contrasts are sometimes most revealing.”
― Hugh B. Brown