I Pray that I am Enough

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the things that have happened to me that framed me, who I was and who I became. Having two teenage kids, you are always walking a fine line between being too involved and not being involved enough. Mother’s and Father’s Day really bring this home to me.

My parents were teenagers when they had me. They held true to each other even with a new baby in high school and all the wonderful, horrible, incredible hurdles they had to cross with their life choices. They worked so hard to raise me and my sisters right. They ended up both going to law school at Baylor, with three kids. Once they graduated they moved back to our hometown of Midland in West Texas. I was 8 years old when they started law school and 11 when they graduated. I decided to follow in their footsteps (for law school, didn’t marry or have kids until after I was a lawyer at the family firm, Borland & Borland).

When I left for law school my father printed and gave to me two quotes in cheap Walmart frames (we weren’t and aren’t fancy folks). I was going to Baylor, which is neither a cheap nor a non fancy school. I was nervous about going. I was afraid I didn’t have what it would take to succeed in law school and many a night I looked up from studying and would read the words on these two quotes. They meant so much to me and gave me strength when I felt inadequate to my tasks. The first is this:

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. ”

Calvin Coolidge

This one speaks so much to me. It is so clearly an American sentiment – if you can will it, and work for it, you can achieve it. I still believe this is true today.

The second is this:

“Now remember,
when things look bad
and it looks like you’re not gonna make it,
then you gotta get mean.
I mean plumb, mad-dog mean.
‘Cause if you lose your head
and you give up then you neither live nor win.
That’s just the way it is.” Josey Wales

To put this one into perspective, we love the spaghetti western with Clint Eastwod, “The Outlaw Josey Wales” and this is a quote from him when he is getting ready to fight what appears to be a losing battle. If you haven’t seen this movie, it is great and is riddled with great quotes, this one has become a family battle cry.

To me this really demonstrates how we work, the first quote – an intelligent president with wise words for all, the second quote. – don’t mess with me ’cause I’m not going to stay down and you won’t like what you get when I get up. A little hardcore redneck mixed with our brainy.

I still worry sometimes about being inadequate to my tasks. The people I am working to help need it so very much. I still have both these quotes on my desk, hi tech version, they float across my screen. I pray that I am enough. Misty

 

This post is also available in: Spanish