In honor of MLK, love and peace
MLK lessons in perseverance, humility and love
Hi friends,
In honor of MLK Day, here are two of my favorite MLK stories — one of perseverance and love, the other of humility — that aren't in many textbooks:
In David Garrow’s 1987 Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, “Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,” King recalled a night during the Montgomery bus boycott. He couldn’t sleep, because a threatening caller had said to him: “N****r, we are tired of you and your mess now. And if you aren’t out of this town in three days, we’re going to blow your brains out, and blow up your house.”
King was at his kitchen table. It was the middle of the night, with his family asleep. He brewed coffee as he contemplated the activism work he was doing, whether it was worth it, and whether it was even safe for him to keep pushing forward as a peace maker. He thought about his young daughter and his wife, and what his and their lives would be like without fighting for justice. Maybe, he thought, it would come with much less worry. Then he had an epiphany. He heard an inner voice say, “Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness.”
For years, that became a moment King often looked back to as a source of strength and resolve.
Civil rights activist and journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault ran into MLK at an event in the summer of 1961, when MLK offered a lesson in humility. Here's Hunter-Gault, in The New Yorker:
I ran up to him, prepared to introduce myself and to lavish praise on him for all that he had done for Atlanta and the students, and for his sacrifices on behalf of black Americans. As I started to introduce myself—before I could get past my name—he reached for my hand, energetically shaking it, while telling me he was proud to meet me. “You are doing a such magnificent job down there,” he said, a reference to my enrollment at the all-white University of Georgia, where Hamilton Holmes and I were the first African-American students to attend earlier that year. As I recalled, in a book I wrote years later, King told me that education “was the key to our freedom, and then he generously thanked me again and wished me success.”
Before I could tell him how proud of him I was, he was mobbed by other admirers, which prevented him from seeing the tears rolling down my cheeks. I will always remember that moment and what it taught me about King and one of his core values: humility.
May we each channel MLK's spirit in a small way by spreading some positive emotions today. Or by sending a small note to someone. A quick text. A short phone call to a loved one or old friend who needs encouragement. Let's hold the door for someone. Smile at others in line, do a chore for a neighbor, knock out a task for an overwhelmed co-worker. Let's do something small today — and every day.
Considering who our ‘core self’ is:
“We all have different selves: There is a public self, a private self and a core self. We all know the public self—it's how we put our best foot forward, smiling and behaving. But the private self is a more fundamental self, and that is where we find our frailties, our fears. It's like a clearinghouse where our demons are safe. Then there's the core self, which is our pure instinct. That's where all our goodness and capacity for kindness lives. You can feel it sometimes. When people say, ‘I feel it in my stomach,’ that's the core self. Our best comes from there, and we know how courageous and honorable we are. The core self is who we are.”
― Sidney Poitier, Wisdom Teacher
Instead of feeling that you lost the day after a bad morning or slow start. . .
Reframe each day as 4 quarters:
morning
midday
afternoon
evening
If you blow one quarter, just get back on track for the next one. Fail small, not big!
Source: Gretchen Rubin, NYT Bestselling Author
The gift of five minutes:
“Give yourself a gift of five minutes of contemplation in awe of everything you see around you. Go outside and turn your attention to the many miracles around you. This five-minute-a-day regimen of appreciation and gratitude will help you to focus your life in awe.”
― Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life
Photo of the week: In the spirit of MLK, a nice note I came across at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta a couple of years ago, just outside MLK’s birthplace home. “Make a new brighter day.” — Charlotte Hood
Parting thought: You will bloom if you take the time to water yourself
Be joyful and celebrate your gifts,
Matthew