Dickens

A guy grew up in Victorian England wanting to be a writer.  But his circumstances were totally against him.  His dad was in prison for not paying his debts.  He got a job putting labels on bottles.  He submitted multiple manuscripts which he sent out in the dead of night so no one would laugh at him.  They were rejected time and again.  Finally one was accepted and the editor praised him for his writing.  That compliment meant the world to him.  He walked the streets with tears in his eyes.  So began the career of Charles Dickens.
I wrote recently about Edison and how Henry Ford encouraged him in what he was doing, and it made a huge difference to him.  He was encouraged.
Encourage to me is an interesting word.  It contains “courage.”  I like that.  The willingness to take a risk.  To do something others may not have thought of, or that others regard as impossible.
Sometimes my dreams require courage.  Dickens was one of eight kids.  So often it is a word spoken in the right way at the right time that keeps a person dreaming.
It seems to me I see enough of pulling down.  Enough of saying “you can’t.”  Yet it is the one who says, “you can” that lifts.  It is the one who believes in another despite negative circumstances or the anonymity of the person.
Time and again I have heard of others lifted beyond bad circumstances and a lack of positive expectation to achieve good things.  Sometimes it is just achieving a happy family life when the past and all around is littered with failures.
I guess it is one of my things.  I totally believe others criticizing continually does not help.   What is seen, and needing to be dealt with, may be true but as they say honey achieves way more than the stick.
I know my failures and shortcomings.  Others reminding me of them do not help.  I achieve way more when others accentuate the positive and encourage me.  In those circumstances I want to go for the good.  A little bit of encouragement for all goes a long way and has even helped to unearth one of the greatest writers of all time.