keep calm and carry on

these are times that try men's souls. yes, those are the words of thomas paine (the pamphlet publishing, morale boosting founding father) which he penned during the american revolution; however, the phrase certainly applies today. the difficult times are present in my family, in the workplace, in the economy, the government, etc. etc. oh, and about the government: perhaps the u.s. administration doesn't feel the hard times... they are helping to create them, rather. (aside: the government is now in control of my student loans... scary).

with everything going on, it's easy to have fear. we've all heard that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." i recently heard someone say "the only thing we have to fear is our own bad decisions." thinking about all this reminds me of the "keep calm and carry on" poster, printed by the british during world war ii to help boost the morale of the british citizens:

i bought a little book at the museum of london called "keep calm and carry on: good advice for hard times"; i bought it mostly because it had the "keep calm and carry on" logo, but i started reading through the quotes the other day and couldn't put it down! for example:

"don't worry about the world coming to an end today. it's already tomorrow in australia." - charles m shulz

it was just what i needed to keep a smile on my face. moreover, i was reading a talk from the lds general conference that included one of my favorite scriptures:

"let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power, and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." doctrine & covenants 123: 17

as i read these things and thought about them, i realized that no matter how hard the times are, we always have the ability to be happy, to have faith, and to "keep calm, and carry on."