Feest Isolation Days – 21 July
Then there are the days when the stars line up and you know that despite the coronavirus, or too many visits, or phone calls, or emails, or whatever is distracting you from your goal, that you will achieve what you set your heart on.
Those are the days when the anxiety melts away and the serenity and knowledge that you’ve made the right choice settles around you like a soothing cup of tea with a perfect slice of homemade cake.
What matters on those days is that whatever you decide to do, it feels right. “It” can be as simple as making that cake, or starting to knit that jumper, or moving towards a more long term plan; start making that violin, planning that house move, writing that novel or even marrying that partner!
Goethe started me on this particular train of thought when I happened upon this quote again.
What you can do, or dream you can, begin it;
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Exploring this “train” a bit more, however, I discovered more about its origin. Right track but not actually the Goethe train!
A poet and translator, John Anster wrote the above inspired by the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s “Faust.”
The next bit of the journey of these words comes from a Scottish mountaineer W H Murray who fills out the commitment advice and does so beautifully.
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.”
Murray was a soldier in World War Two and was captured by a German tank commander on the retreat from the battle of El Alamein. The German spoke perfect English and when asked if he was cold, Murray replied, “As a mountain top.” The German was also a keen mountain climber and put his machine gun away. Murray spent the next years in three different prison camps. He wrote the first draft of a book on toilet paper while in one of the camps. When the Germans found it they destroyed it. To the amazement of his fellow prisoners he began again. The rewritten work was finally published in 1947 as “Mountaineering in Scotland”. The above quote is from another Murray book, The Scottish Himalaya Expedition written in 1951.
What do you plan to commit to today, this week the rest of the year? Whatever personal mountain you have to climb, go for it. Whatever it is, as all of these people say, begin it now! “There is no time like the present”. That bit of advice comes from John Trusler, a priest and compiler of proverbs in 1790. The first time this wise saying was recorded was in 1562. Now that really must give us all pause for thought.
Enjoy!
With love
Kathy x