Henry on a Wednesday

Good Morning, World!
I started my quote project this morning. Last night I took a handful of inspirational quotes that were printed on colorful paper and cut them down into little pieces. I threw them all in this awesome porcelain tin I have that looks like a Chinese takeout box—on the front the word “dreams” is engraved.

Each day I will go to this jar and remove a quote which will guide me through my day as a creative, lively woman.

I planned to wake up this morning at 5:30 am but found the snooze button far too alluring. Despite waking at my normal time, I marched to my jar and got my quote. And guess what? My quote got me thinking, which got me writing and before I knew it I had 500 words!

So the quote did its job well.

I hope to share these quotes here with you, so that they will guide your journey as well. It is also really cool to get a briefing on the men and women behind the quotes.

Here is today’s quote:
“The ability to convert ideas to things is the secret to outward success.”—Henry Ward Beecher

Of all the quotes I found yesterday,this was one of the least tantalizing but closer observation opens my mind:

•Henry Beecher was a preacher. A preacher who was taken to court for sleeping with a married woman (ooooOOOOooo drama :)).
•His sister was Harriet Beecher Stowe, who I swore was African American, but apparently I got my Harriets mixed up?
•He believed Christians could purge the sins of society.
•He carried jewels around in his pockets which he referered to as his “opiates”. (did someone say “sins of society”?)
•He went to Amherst and a seminary school outside of Cincinnati (= dude got around.)
•He believed in Darwin’s theory of evolution (=dude was revolutionary)
•Mark Twain, Lincoln and Walt Whitman were just some of the greats who paid his congregation a visit.
•He held mock auctions where the congregation purchased the freedom of slaves
•And finally and perhaps most fascinating….. his last words were: “here comes the mystery”.

If you apply this quote to slavery, it is easy to see how Beecher attempted to convert the idea of freedom into a tangible thing.

This quote has value for my life. I have an idea of health and weight loss, and I am working to put it in to motion, so that it becomes a “thing”.

The same for my idea of myself as a writer.

What are some ideas you have that you want to come to fruition? Do you want to be a rock super star? A mother? An astronaut?