WORDS TO LIVE BY!

Quote from Maya Angelou.

"The best things in life come wrapped up in small packages"

Do you enjoy inspirational quotes as much as I do?

Do you love the words of people such as Maya Angelou, Mark Twain, Mahatma Ghandi, Mother Teresa or Winston Churchill? Their inspirational words have often had the power to help me stay strong in times of stress and trouble.

But what about the words of the ordinary people in our own lives? I still remember many words spoken by people during my life which left a lasting impression on me for many years. I still recall many of them today.





​For instance, many moons ago when I was a five year-old kindergarten child, I recall being very upset because I was the smallest in the class. All the others were much taller. One day my teacher (whose name incidentally was Miss Trott - yes, really!) took me aside and told me not to be sad. She explained that "all the best things in life come wrapped up in small packages." Those words helped  me so much until I grew taller. 

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These next words which I heard from our headmistress in high school made an indelible impression on me. She was a terrifying woman at the best of times but whenever she taught as Religious Instruction she would begin with the words; "Never, under any circumstances, abbreviate the word "Christmas" to "Xmas."  "x", she said "is the unknown quantity and Christ is certainly not unknown."  Even to this day I have never written the word "Xmas" for fear of that frightening woman coming up behind me on the attack!

I was blessed to have two parents who always encouraged me to be the best I could be. My mother was a cock-eyed optimist whose favorite expressions were "always think positively"; "the best is yet to come"  and, whenever I was feeling down, "remember this too will pass."

My dad was also my inspirational hero. He encouraged me whenever I faced rejection  by telling me "it's all for the best, so pull yourself up by your boot strings and start all over. You will get there eventually. When one door  shuts, another always opens."  He was usually right.

When I studied writing at college, teachers often advised me to "only write about what I knew best." Another important message to a future history writer such as me was "research, research and yet more research."

In  fact, one of my hometown's well-known archival historians once gave me some really good advice. "If you are writing about people in the 1800s, forget everything you know about today's world and cast yourself back into theirs. Only then will you get it right."   All words to live by indeed. 

​Do you have words that have made a lasting impression on you? I'd love to hear yours in the comments below.

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