My muse, Winston Churchill...

So as I've been going through this insane life where everything than can go wrong finds a way to go wrong and even things that really shouldn't go wrong also find some was to go awry, I have found a new hope, a new inspiration.

I actually happened to pass a magnet in a bookstore today as I was killing time and trying to relax before a job interview. (Yes, this is my third. No, I haven't heard back from either of the first two.)

The magnet said simply, "If you're going through hell, keep going." And it just struck me as so true of everything that had been happening these last few years and the only means I had of surviving any of it. Just keep going. It was a quote from Winston Churchill, a man who was no stranger to mental illness and, in fact, suffered several episodes of major depression, some while leading the nation of Great Britain through her most difficult history.

Winston has a lot more wisdom.

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing happened."

"If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."

"Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy."

"Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm."

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."

"Truth is incontrovertible, ignorance can deride it, panic may resent it, malice may destroy it, but there it is."

"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes."

"The price of greatness is responsibility."

"The destiny of man is not measured by material computation. When great forces are on the move in the world, we learn we are spirits--not animals."

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."

"Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing...after they have exhausted all other possibilities."

"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results."

Thank you, Prime Minister Churchill, for sharing such gems to caring generations through their lives with wit, inspiration and a choked up chuckle.