Brick Walls - M. Laycock

I've been fighting frustration lately. Frustration with people who seem bent on destroying something beautiful, frustration with doors that slam in your face, frustration with pounding on brick walls that show no sign of crumbling. I confess I was ready to quit a couple of days ago. Ready to turn my computer off and walk away.

But then I managed to have a good night's sleep. (Amazing what that will do for your atttitude!) And then I received an e-mail from a woman telling me how much she is anticipating my sequel. And then I found this video clip.

It's of a university professor named Randy Pausch, giving his last lecture because he was dying of pancreatic cancer. He showed slides of his CAT scan, then he talked about acheiving his childhood dreams, dreams about creating something worthwhile, dreams about doing something important, dreams about just having fun.

I watched in awe as he laid out the pattern of his life - a life in which, in one way or another, he had managed to accomplish all of his childhood dreams. There was no spiritual message in his lecture, yet seeing how his life unfolded you couldn't miss the blessings of God.

He made a few statements worth noting.

The first one is - "Luck is where preparation meets opportunity. So be prepared."

The second is - "Brick walls aren't there to keep you out. They're there to show you how badly you want to accomplish your dream."

And the third - "Enabling the dreams of others might just end up being the best part of all, and certainly the most fun."

I listened to this video as I cut up another stack of bookmarks - another small battering ram for that brick wall.