Perhaps you have never heard of Katherine Lawes. Katherine was the
wife of Lewis Lawes, warden at Sing Sing Prison from 1920-1941.

Sing Sing had the reputation of destroying wardens. The average
warden's tenure before Lewis Lawes was two years. "The easiest way to
get out of Sing Sing," he once quipped, "is to go in as warden." In
his 21 years he instituted numerous reforms - and an important part of
his success was due to his wife Katherine.

Katherine took seriously the idea that the prisoners are human beings,
worthy of attention and respect. She regularly visited inside the
walls of Sing Sing. She encouraged the prisoners, ran errands for them
and spent time listening to them. Most importantly, she cared about
them. And as a result, they cared deeply about her.

Then one night in October of 1937, news was "telegraphed" between the
prison cells that Katherine was killed in an accident. The prisoners
petitioned the warden to allow them to attend her funeral bier. He
granted their strange request and a few days later the south gate of
Sing Sing swung slowly open. Hundreds of men - felons, lifers,
murderers, thieves - men convicted of almost every crime conceivable,
marched slowly from the prison gate to the bier, reassembled at the
house and returned to their cells. There were so many that they
proceeded unguarded. But not one tried to escape. If he had, the
others may have killed him on the spot, so devoted were they to
Katherine Lawes, the woman who daily walked into Hell to show the men
a piece of Heaven.

Katherine's strength was to see the men less as prisoners and more as
individuals. Thomas Moore has said, "We can only treat badly those
things or people whose souls we disregard."

To treat people well is to honor their souls. To honor their souls is
to understand what it means to love your neighbor.

Steve Goodier

 

 

 

You can hide your thoughts, feelings and even your actions from others. Yet the person you are to become will always know them. The person you are to become is always watching the person you are right now. What you think of yourself tomorrow depends on the actions you watch yourself take today.

Will you find strength and inspiration in the future from the things you are doing this very day? The you of tomorrow is watching every thought, every word, every action.

There is a very important person in your life who sees your every move and knows your every thought. That person is you.

Give yourself good reason to think highly of yourself. Live so that the person you become can look back with gratitude and admiration at the person you are today.

 

 

Reach beyond where you are toward your highest possibility. If you attain it, you win, and even if you fall short of the mark, you still win. For it is the reaching that truly counts. Yes, the results do matter, yet what makes them so valuable is the process you go through to attain them.

When you make the effort and get the results you want, that's great. When you make the effort but the results aren't satisfactory, then you've just prepared yourself to come back even stronger next time.

Either way, when you live and act with purpose and passion, you win. When you put your effort toward a clear, positive and meaningful end, you win. Winners are not those who simply have good fortune handed to them. Winners are those people who make the efforts necessary to reach good fortune.

Reach, reach, reach, with every moment, every thought, every action, and you may get the results you want or you may get the experience you need. Either way, you win.

Ralph Marston