A proverb is no proverb to you until your life has illustrated it. – John Keats
John Keats was an English poet who flourished in the early 19th century. Like some poets, Keats was not particularly well received while living, his reputation growing mainly after his death at age 25 after battling tuberculosis. Keats has long been one of England’s most revered poets.
It’s nice to read and take note of wise things other people have said. It’s useful to say yes, I like that because it shows you have put some thought into what you are about.
But thoughts need action. An inspiring thought remains mere words on a page until set free and let loose in your life. So when we come across a quote we like it’s useful to ask ourselves if we implement them in our own life or do we merely nod knowingly and admire it before going on as we had before? The only real knowledge in this life comes from the experiences we give ourselves, and we will never know if the aphorism we like is really true until we give it a shot ourselves.
A good example is Henry David Thoreau’s “Proceed confidently in the direction of your dreams…” It’s the first line of a larger, rather famous quotation, and many who are familiar with it haven’t read the book Walden it is taken from.
This is a thoughtful line, typical Thoreau, but it doesn’t do anyone any good if it is left on the page. It only provides when someone actually steps out and chases a dream or two.
Now, just because you chase a dream doesn’t mean you are going to catch it. Some dreams you do catch, life’s great prize, but others will elude you, life’s great lesson. Some dreams are chased for many years, life’s great challenge.
A proverb is no proverb to you until your life has illustrated it…
What quote, thought or proverb has meaning for you? Is your life illustrating it? If so, good. If not, why not go and live it? It doesn’t matter what the thought is, either. What one person finds meaningful someone else might find irrelevant. All that matters is that the thought means something to you, moving you to the extent that you incorporate it in your life on a daily basis because what inspires you will take you exactly where you meant to go in this life.
The Thought for the Day runs regularly. Quotes are from Gaylon’s private stock.
