My brain has been mush for a month.

Mush.

Yucky, uninspired, dare I say even depressed, mush.

And writing, the process of placing nouns and verbs and maybe even adjectives in some kind of proper, sensible order, has been nearly impossible.

I have let the negativity at work once again seep through me and be fully digested. Once again, I am where I was six months ago. Will I have a job, or won’t I?

And I have learned something from this process of watching a corporate ship be run aground and the mentality of those at this particular helm.

I have learned how those who didn’t are blamed and targeted by those who did.

And I have watched and been affected by those with power using that power to stomp on those who they perceive as not having power.

This saddens me even more than the prospect of losing my job or having my hours cut.

And as I have watched this play of power, I have sadly wondered, will humans ever evolve past our original “eat or be eaten” hard-wiring?

But yesterday, as I was getting ready to go to work, I decided I was not going to let those whose hearts have been hardened, harden my heart.

And I thought about something I had found the day before, something I have held onto for almost three decades and that has delightfully reappeared in my life like a well to a desert wanderer.

My little brown box.

Inside this little box, written in my 19 year-old hand on now yellowing index cards are the words of the masters who have inspired me since I was a college sophomore studying history and literature. Words written by men and women who took life’s pains and delights and created beauty.

Inside this plain, plastic box is elegance and it is from this mucky place I am in and trying to work myself out of that I launch “The Brown Box Quotes” series. They are words that inspire me and keep my heart elastic and I would like to share them with you.

So without further adieu, I begin at the front of the box…