Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. Today marks our 1,000th episode, and I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude to all the listeners

we've had over the years, and a very special thanks to those who've supported us by a donation

for becoming a patron for a while. It has been a privilege to be able to share these inspirational

life lessons with you each week.

To celebrate this milestone and show my gratitude, I'm offering the Kindle eBook

editions of our three motivational books, Evergreen, Everest, and Evermore, for free from

today April 17th until Saturday, April 19th. To pick up your free copies, go to

living hour.org forward slash books. That's living hour.org forward slash books. Or simply

search for them on Amazon.

For today's 1000th episode, we are going to revisit our very first podcast, a reading from

Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay on self-reliance.

Thank you.

The power that resides in you is new in nature, and no one but you knows what you can do,

nor will you know until you have tried.

Trust thyself. Every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place that divine providence is found for you in the society of your contemporaries.

Great men and women have always done so, devoting themselves childlike to the genius of their age, with all of their being.

Like those who have come before us, we must accept

with highest mind our transcendent destiny, and behave not like cowards fleeing before a revolution,

but like fearless guides helping others advance through the chaos and the dark.

There are brilliant, formidable, playful, and eloquent voices which we hear in solitude while young.

But they grow faint and inaudible as we grow older and enter into the world.

Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the self-reliance of every one of its members.

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