Good Morning Digital Neighbors! A few quotes to prime the morning thoughts. The topic of the morn - criticism, something many find too easy to give and even more find it find it very difficult to accept. I am not sure what I think of the term constructive criticism. I know it exisit and have been helped by it, but too many offer what they think is constructive criticism when it is just criticism with no construction in mind. You know the person: "I'm telling you this for your own good. . . " REALLY???😂🤣😂 They may actually believe it, but you shouldn't. We know whose good they have in mind, and is it less yours and more theirs. We do want to be open to the suggestions, criticisms and advice of others, to think we know all we need to know on our own, or that we comprehend every situation clearly if foolish. On to the quotes - Happy Thursday!

Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you, you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising which tempt you to believe that your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men to win them. - Ralph Waldo Emerson, quoted in The Book of Courage (1924) by Edwin Osgood Grover

Somebody said that it couldn't be done,
But he with a chuckle replied
That "maybe it couldn't," but he would be one
Who wouldn't say so till he'd tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.

He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn't be done, and he did it. 
Somebody scoffed: "Oh, you'll never do that;
At least no one ever has done it";
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
And the first thing we knew he'd begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn't be done, and he did it. 

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you, one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That "cannot be done," and you'll do it.

-Edgar A. Guest, "It Couldn't Be Done", The Path to Home

A winter mountain barn somewhere