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It’s in the doing that you get the strength
to continue what you do and succeed
at last. Experience is what you need
and if too young for that, then faith at length
will get you where you want to go, step at
a time, when heart and mind are one. If not
the heart will start to go but then will stop
never wanting what the mind wants. My cat
contented sleeps away the morning while
I write carefully carelessly.
I’m not perfect. I make mistakes I see
and cross out. I don’t erase. I smile. My
pencil’s lead ends before the eraser.
Cross it out and go on. It’s easier.
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I tell my students that it’s very important sometimes to be confused. Before you know, you do not know. Before you understand, you do not understand. It is out of confusion that understanding comes. When you see your mistakes, don’t erase them. That takes too much time. Just cross them out and go on. It might be valuable to review your mistakes later on and you can’t see an erased one. The lead in your pencil should always run out long before your eraser.
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Drawings by Akram