Thomas Jefferson said, "Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day." We've had some really cool sunrises lately, and I was able to take a picture of a particularly awesome one last week. However, as is usually the case, my picture didn't come near to doing the sunrise justice. It did, though, serve to get me thinking about the quote I included in this week's newsletter and how the dawn of day gives us new life and hope.

As you undoubtedly have picked up on if you've followed these newsletters, I love the profound wisdom that can be found in the simplest of quotes, and this week I found such wisdom in this quote from Babe Ruth: "Every strike brings me closer to the next homerun." I guess with the spring weather and our spring sports in full swing (pardon the pun), I chose to focus my message on this  baseball quote and metaphor. We certainly have all had our share of strikes and strikeouts (to use the metaphor) in life.

"A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don't have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed." --Nelson Mandella

"Our business in life is not to get ahead of others but to get ahead of ourselves--to break our own records, to outstrip our yesterdays by our today, to do our work with more force than ever before." 

 -- Stewart B. Johnson