words

- a rich diet of words that encourage, empower and enable. Each morning, after the coffee is ready, I read the Wall Street Journal, the bible and another 'positive' book, so that I would have breakfasted on a solid diet of powerful thoughts and be equipped for the day's struggle. It has been so needful and a pressing thing to do, that instead of having the alarm clock wake me up at 5 am, it now goes off at 4.45 am. I know,even with all these armament, at the end of the day, I am a mess, for having gone out into the world and having it beat me up.

I work in skid row, Los Angeles and the negativity is nothing like what you see elsewhere. The negativity here whacks at me everyday. I come home with spiritual bruises, I rest for the night and get up the next morning to do it again.

Without a strong belief in God, without arming myself with the word of God, I would not last a day. I have become very strong. I work with my hands, I write, I count pills. My most favorite bible verse is Psalm 144:1, '... the Lord....who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle...'

In William Barclay's book, 'The Apostles' creed', he quotes, ' God sells goods to men at the cost of their labor'. When the going is tough, I remember this quotation and I'm able to go on.

I love wacky Stuart Wilde's quotation, 'any philosophy that you can't haul down to the bank or up to the airport ain't worth having.'

I am re reading ' The power of positive thinking' by Vincent Norman Peale.

Just as I remember to take my vitamins and eat nutritious food, I feast on a diet of positive reinforcement everyday.