The opinions we carry of ourselves and of others seem pinned to unreachable standards. It is a scale of weights and measures so out of sync with reality, that we don't seem to know how to accurately account for our own attitudes, ideas, and actions, much less those of someone else. And the disparity between perception and reality, between fact and fiction is widening.

Some of the most capable and creative individuals will never become the men or women they might have become because those around them continually assume the least, and refuse to challenge and inspire them toward a more expansive version of life.

Our myriad differences afford us, daily, the opportunity to serve others even as we serve our own needs, to encourage, mentor, teach and partner with others for their growth and freedom, even as we widen the boundaries of our own existence.

When we put our ideas to work quickly, we have a greater probability of success, much more than ideas and skills that linger, grand notions that sit idling in the ever-growing corridors of our oldest dreams and our best laid plans. There is a cognitive and practical half-life to ideas, a brief season of freshness that we shouldn’t waste.

Because love is never inert, it being a living thing made up of both individual and mutual decisions, and something infinitely layered, comprised of myriad emotional, psychological, physical, and spiritual experiences, it must be embraced for all that it is and all it can become.