SOMETIMES we lose sight – it’s easy to do in the daily flutterings of life. What’s real, what’s important, what can wait, what cannot.  Here are some encouraging, lifting words from Austen; although he wrote them to himself, they are generally applicable to living a good, fulfilled, solid-citizen, wonderful life.  May his words bring a positive glow to your day and perhaps a little inspiration. 

“Butterfly At Rest,” Tucson Botanical Gardens, 2016.

From Austen’s “Journey Through Sobriety”:

Sometimes I lose sight of the beauty.  Make music, be exceptional, do things differently, think one step ahead.  See yourself as a viable, flawed but worthwhile human being.  Attractive, thoughtful, intelligent. Ready to take on any challenge without fear.  Courage and enthusiasm.  Once you get a hold of who you are and what you have to offer you can really start dictating things in your life.  Not controlling things, but just making informed choices and decisions.

Lift yourself up.
Dream big.
Think without limitations.
Mature, unflustered, confident, carrying myself with dignity and self-respect. Creative, interesting, different.

 * * * *

You have to be patient with other people as well as yourself.  You have to do things you don’t want to do because the right thing is not always the easy thing, in fact, it’s usually the harder choice.  Deciding not to get angry or going out of your way to help someone.  Eventually all of these positive actions add up.  They seem small and insignificant at the time, but in the bigger picture they are extremely meaningful. Being a kind, good, positive person is the path I want to walk.  It has been the path I have wanted to follow for a long time.  Every since I saw what the world was really about and what actually exists within the darkness.  I need to be a shining light because that is who I am and because the world needs more people like that.

Austen Berj Brooks, ‘Journey Through Sobriety,’ July 23, 24, 2014.

Austen in Tucson, 2011: a ‘shining light’ indeed.