CLEVELAND — When times are tough, we all have different ways of finding inspiration, of finding that motivation to pick ourselves up and power through.
Sometimes for me, just reading a quote is enough to get me back into shape.
I bring this up because we all are going through a difficult spell under the cloud of the coronavirus pandemic. Every day is a challenge as we deal with the uncertainty, and sometimes fear, that comes with this crisis.
We, of course, are not the first peoples to have to deal with a crisis in our history. I often turn to Abraham Lincoln for some inspiration. It was Lincoln who guided our nation through the four years of the Civil War. Many of us grew up having to recite his Gettysburg Address at school, but I love a portion of his final inaugural address.
“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan – to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”
I think about people like Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He guided the United States through two crises durinig his years in office: The Great Depression and World War II. Many of us know FDR's quote, "the only thing we have to fear is, fear itself." Or on the day after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, FDR delivered a stirring address to Congress declaring war, saying "December 7th, 1941, a day which will live in infamy."
I like this line from Roosevelt during his first inaugural address, when he spoke to a nation that had approximately 15 million people unemployed at the time.
"Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men."
There are literally thousands of inspirational quotes out there. Heck, I even have an app on my phone with examples.
Maya Angelou -- "Courage is the most imporatnt of all the virutues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently."
Nelson Mandela --"The greatest glory in living lies in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."
Or there's even things from Dr. Amy Acton that I've appreciated, both during her briefings and in her one-on-one with Russ Mitchell earlier this week.
“I want you to have hope. I feel hope -- even now in the thick of the storm -- because I am seeing things that we have long forgotten, and ways of us treating each other in our busy lives that we have forgotten. I have absolute hope that we will emerge from this stronger and better than we’ve ever been.”
So we want to know: What quote inspires or motivates you in times like these? Let us know on Facebook, or use the hashtag #BeOn3 on Twitter and Instagram.