While exploring one of the many dirt roads that cut their way through the Choccolocco Wildlife Management Area I find my way to a place called Piney Glen.  It is like a little oasis has been conjured up in the middle of the dark forest.  This is a lush green camping area isolated and secluded by an Alabama jungle consisting of thousands of acres of Mother Nature at her wildest.

        I park and walk around the outer limits of my new found sanctuary in search of something wild and beautiful.  Ten minutes later I find myself standing on a large flat rock in the middle of a cool stream.  I decide to sit down, nice and quiet like, and wait to see what the forest will send my way.  Moments later I sense movement out of the corner of my eye and I turn to discover a new friend wiggling in the edge of the waters that I named Wet Willy.

        I sit silently and observe Willy trying to discern if he wants to get to know me better or just remain friends.  He decides that I am harmless and goes about his business as he heads straight for the buffet.  The thing I remember most about Willy is his courageous attitude and willingness to keep on going in spite of opposition and obstacles.  He did not allow a potential threat to slow him down, nor did the fast moving water stand between him and the object of his desire, a big juicy mouse.

         We could learn a lot from Willy.  As we travel the path laid out before us today we shall face many obstacles standing on the rocks before us; will we meet those difficulties with fear or faith?  Let me remind you that today we can be victorious in spite of the giants that tower above us.  No matter how rough the waters may be, our Captain will never leave or forsake us.  Who can defeat us if we sail with the Master of the seas?  Courage is a choice; choose wisely.

Something to think about:

• Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must be first overcome.

• A great deal of talent is lost in this world for want of a little courage.

• Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.

• Fear can keep a man out of danger; but courage can support him in it.

• It takes guts to leave the ruts.

• The coward seeks release from pressure. The courageous pray for strength.

• The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man’s determination.

• Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles that he has overcome while trying to succeed.

• Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failures, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory or defeat.

• You must either conquer the world or the world will conquer you. You must be either master or slave.

Take courage because you can accomplish great things today
Rickey Moore