Skip to main content

The Power of the Human Spirit

Another post by Team Long Shot…


I was watching TV, when a commercial for the new movie, “127 Hours” appeared, with James Franco. This movie is based on the true story of Aron Ralston, who in 2003 was hiking in Utah. He fell into a deep crevasse, followed by cliff edge debris and an 800 ton rock that smashed and trapped his right hand against the face of the wall. Aron was hiking solo, so there was nobody who was aware of his location and dire circumstances, eighty feet underground. He was presented with two options, die of dehydration or cut his own arm off in an attempt to survive. Using a very dull knife, he cut though the skin and muscle, and in a moment of inspiration, used the leverage of the rock itself to break the pair of bones leading to his hand. With his victory over the rock insured, he climbed up out of the crevasse, basically rescuing himself. This powerful story really hit home with me. All too often we are limited by what our minds and what others view as possible. We choose to believe experts: doctors when they say you will never walk again, or critics who say your book will never become a best seller. What changed from those long-ago days when we were little kids and everyone wanted to be president, an astronaut, an Olympian, or to cure cancer? Why is it that the process of growing up seems to be accompanied by the loss of a belief in ones self and huge dreams? While it is true in sports that only one team can win (sorry Charger fans), nearly all of life is not reaching the top, but in obtaining satisfaction from working hard at dreaming big and becoming the best person you can be. Along the route, for every door that closes, another opens, presenting new opportunities at every turn. Feeling satisfied that you have given it your all, beats that other feeling of disappointment in never having tried. So channel your inner 6-year-old, who believes that anything can happen and dream big, really big.
Thanks for reading, Cassie

Comments

Linda McDonald said…
You're right....when we are kids we dream big. Then somehow we let go of a lot of our dreams once we are adults. Thank you for this post. I needed it today.
Lisa D said…
Great post and perfect timing. I really needed a boost today.

Popular posts from this blog

Guest Blogger Jessica Park and Chapter One of "Cook the Books."

I am very happy today to have my good friend Jessica Park share the first chapter of her next book, "Cook the Books," due out in March. If you haven't read a Gourmet Girl Mystery, you need to. They're everything a good mystery should be and more--They're funny, romantic, mysterious(duh) and just plain fun. Do yourself a favor and read the entire series. You won't be sorry! Without further ado... Chapter 1 I have a love-hate relationship with Craigslist. On the one hand, I adore poking through the online classifieds for items I don’t even want—Swedish bobbin winders, chicken coops, vintage Christmas ornaments—and for enviable extravagances that I can’t afford—like the services of someone to come to my house to change the cat litter. On the other hand, I hate getting sucked into the vortex of randomly searching for weird items and unaffordable services instead of looking for what I actually need. For example, at the moment, I absolutely had to find a part-time j

DADDY'S HOME

This is the book that really started it all in some ways for me. I'd been writing and publishing for eight years under my name. I'd written the Nikki Sands and Michaela Bancroft mystery series before DADDY'S HOME came out and I'd built a decent cozy mystery genre readership. I'd actually written Daddy's Home before MURDER UNCORKED came out because my initial intent as a writer was to be a thriller author. However, after sending Daddy's Home out on A LOT of unsolicited submissions I hadn't found representation and the idea for Murder Uncorked came to me...and viola...an agent loved it and sold three books in that series (two of them hadn't been written yet) in two weeks after signing me. Nine books in the two different series later both series were dropped and I found myself asking...what next? It was about that time that Amazon started the KDP program for Indies and I had five manuscripts that hadn't been published and none of them were what re

Powerless and Pissy

(The kid and I wrote this blog yesterday, but I'm happy to say we now have power!) Oh. God. Killlll meeeeeee! It’s Friday night and we haven’t had power since just before midnight on Thursday. I’m a baby about this. People have gone without the comforts of electricity for much longer than this, but I am near the edge of insanity. I have zero coping skills. Thursday 12: 10 a.m.: Wind is atrocious. Howling, annoying, relentless. The last woman is about to skate her individual Olympic performance and the power cuts out. Not that I even really follow women’s ice-skating, but I was following it at the moment. The noise outside is enough to wake the dead and I’m hearing something suspicious going on with the deck. I could maybe tolerate noise and fear of exploding transformers, but I cannot sleep without my beloved white noise machine. Will pray that husband falls into some sort of rhythmic and soothing snoring pattern. 12:35 a.m.: Husband is indeed snoring, but sound is laced with a