One of my favorite things on my offshore trip was driving the Argo… I stood at the wheel, gazing ahead, and in order to stay on course I checked the stars. Even now, when I look up and see familiar patterns in the sky, I feel reassured.

Sometimes I worry if I’m doing it right when it comes to my life and career choices. These are words that help me stay the course.

Don’t ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.

–Rev. Howard Thurman

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

–Margaret Mead

Each time I have embarked on a particularly exciting campaign, conventional wisdom has said “it can’t be done” and friends have said “one person won’t make any difference.” Yet, time after time, we’ve won. One person at a time. At first, it would be just a couple of friends. Then their friends, and with a few new folks, there was a crowd. More effort and it looked like a movement. Then the conventional wisdom almost always changed to “I knew it would happen all along.”

–David Allison, Center for Marine Conservation (Fish for the Future: A Citizen’s Guide to Federal Marine Fisheries Management)

You can begin again at any moment, and the instant you turn back toward true north, every mistake you’ve made and every minute you’ve spent following the wrong path will become the raw material of wisdom, compassion, and joy.

–Martha Beck (Finding Your Own North Star)

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