In my A.Word.A.Day email, the quote at the bottom said, "Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers; pray for powers equal to your tasks." -Phillips Brooks, bishop and orator (1835-1893).

The first thing that came into my head was the fact of my phenomenal cosmic power. (Ha ha, yes, my power went straight to my head.) I thought small tasks, big powers. And so I became confused: Is he saying that we should not use our power and live small lives, and not ask for more to do? That's a weird thing to say. Well, he IS a priest*. But that doesn't seem right...

What else could he mean? Then: OHHhhh, I get it. He's talking like, if you feel like you've got this huge task, and you feel powerless against it, don't ask for a smaller task, ask instead for the power to deal. SMALL power, BIG task. Rise to the challenge. I see. Okay.

* Don't ask me why that made sense to me. Apparently I must think priests want people to underachieve.

Anyone notice that overachievers always feel like underachievers, while underachievers feel easily overextended?

Oh, man, I am the Queen of the sound-bite. I'm gonna need to be as famous as Ben Franklin, otherwise all my great quotes will go to waste.

1:13 a.m. 2003-12-12�