Best morning I have had in a while

Today is Monday, and yet it is one of the best Monday's I have ever had. I woke up early this morning, worked out, had a great breakfast, and have been very busy and accomplished a ton I had to at work today( yes, I came in on MLK day). Also, I had a great weekend, and more importantly, I didn't drink at all this weekend, even though I went out and there was a Ravens playoff game. It was great for me to be able to go out and not have a drink at all. It also felt so good to wake up Fri, Sat, Sun, and Mon morning with no hangover and not sleepy at all. I guess that is all going into why today is such a great day.

MLK quotes

A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

A lie cannot live.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

A man can't ride your back unless it's bent.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

A man who won't die for something is not fit to live.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

A right delayed is a right denied.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

A riot is the language of the unheard.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Everything that we see is a shadow cast by that which we do not see.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I am not interested in power for power's sake, but I'm interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the promised land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I submit that an individual who breaks the law that conscience tells him is unjust and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the very highest respect for law.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I want to be the white man's brother, not his brother-in-law.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

If physical death is the price that I must pay to free my white brothers and sisters from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing can be more redemptive.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values - that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

It is incontestable and deplorable that Negroes have committed crimes; but they are derivative crimes. They are born of the greater crimes of the white society.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Life's most urgent question is: what are you doing for others?
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

why date if not fully into the person

I have been thinking so much about this topic lately, that every time I do, I have a new thought or a new idea about it. I look around and I see so many people dating, some just starting out, some have been serious for a while, and I start to wonder how many of them are dating, how many of them are in love, and how many of them have just convinced them selves that they are in love, when in actuality, they really are not?

I guess this all comes from what happened to me when I got married? Yes, we had a great relationship, but at the same time, when you look back on it, you realize that it was merely a great relationship and we were not in love and that we should have not have gotten married. We started dating my last semester of college, we dated for a while after that, then the next thing to do was move in together. we did that more because we figured that was the next step, so we did. The next step after that was engagement, and then of course marriage.

I look around at the girls I date and why I date them. I would not date a girl if she didn't make me smile and I wasn't happy around her, but at the same time, I think there has to be more then that. It seems like if you spend enough time with someone, those feelings just sort of happen and most of the time, they are not true feelings and you are not truly happy with them, you are just happy that you like someone and they like you back and that you enjoy to be around each other.

It is all so confusing to me

true love

I recently took one of those cheesy quizzes on facebook about what type of movie I was, and below is what one of the questions were with the possible responses:

If you had to say good bye for the last time to the one you loved, what would you say ?
a. it would never happen i would never let them go
b. i will always love you
c. forget about me
d. i will lie and say i will see you again
e. i would not say a thing i would just hold them tight. and then watch them slip away from my life

This made me start to think a lot. My first and immediate response was choice a. I then thought about it more and started to think that maybe that wasnt true. It made me think a lot about what is true love and have I found true love. Since I am single right now, if I have found true love, then I guess I did let it go so my answer would be wrong. At the same time, I feel I did find true love, but it was my own faults and own mistakes that pushed her away, and because of that, we are not together anymore.
It also made me realize that once you find that true love, it is something and someone that you will never truly be apart from. Even if you do not talk to them or have them in your life etc., at some point in time, they are on your mind, and you are wondering what they are up to. At the same time, you know that they are thinking the same thing about you.

True love is a once in a life time thing, and when you do find it, you will know it, because you will never have to think about an answer to a quiz like that, because when you find true love, you will do everything in your power to keep it and not lose it, and if for some reason you do lose it, you will do everything you can to get it back, because you know deep down, that is who you want to be with forever.

abortoin

This is one of those topics that no one ever wants to talk about, but yet is something that most people have had some sort of encounter with. As I have learned, this is a very personal and emotional topic and every single person has a different emotion towards it.

I guess for me, I have my own view on it. I will say that, I think it is wrong that both women and men get embarrassed and feel a sense of shame when talking about it. I know it is sort of a "taboo" topic, but it is a part of real life, and for someone to have to go through something so emotional and difficult, and then be embarrased to talk about it, because they are afraid of what people may say, is just wrong.

I always say when it comes to relationships and when people break up, that I will not comment or make an opinion on it, because when it comes to a relationship, no one except for the two people involved really know what is happened, so it is unfair for anyone else to judge them. I feel the same way about when someone gets an abortion. It is 100% their choice or the choice of the couple. No one knows except for the people directly involved what is going on and what circumstances lead into a person's decision to get an abortion.

I have known people that have gotten abortions and I know people that are 100% against it. I know that those people intermingle because the person that got the abortion would never speak their mind. It is very interesting how modern society judges when someone gets an abortion, and they view it as a very simple black or white thing, when in actuality it is very complicated and very specific to each individual person, and no person should ever be embarrassed or judged for making an opinion that affects their life.

Letter to my friends about listening

I wrote this to my friends about how they think I don't always listen to them:

I know that sometimes it comes across that I am not listening to what you say, or that I hear it, but I am not paying attention. The fact it, that is the complete opposite, I hear everything and I listen to everything, and I care about everything. You guys are all like family to me, and I am sorry it comes across that way. I am not making any excuses, but I can offer a little bit of an explanation. It is hard to pinpoint exactly why ( even doctors get a little confused), but I always have about 50 different thoughts running through my head at all times. We all know I have add and I am a little ( not severe according to doctors) bi-polar, which comes out as very happy sometimes and also sad and depressed at other times.

As most of you have seen, I can be very up, and then be very down at the same time. Because of this, I know it appears that I may not be listening when you tell me something, or that I seem distant or something along those lines. That is the complete opposite of what is happening. I know it comes across this way, it has cost me friendships and relationships in the past. The bottom line, is I love hearing everything about people's lives, and I am always here to help. I always want to know what is going on, if you are happy, I am happy for you, when you are pissed or sad or whatever, I feel the same way. I guess I view my friends like my family, I am an only child, and I have always attached to other people's family as my own.

The point of this email is to let you know all, that even though I may come across on the surface as aloof and not listening, I really am, and I really do care. I want to help any way I ever can if you are sad or upset, I want to just listen if you need to vent about something, if you are in a great mood and you just want to have a good time, I am here for that also. Just please don't think, that because I may change a topic in our conversation or because I come across as not listening, that I do not care and that I do not listen to everything. I wish I could help all the other thoughts in my head and how I change topics and how my mind wonders, but that is something that is out of my control.