Welcome to Noir Sunday Talks, an exclusive series for the patrons of the inspirational living podcast.

Today's talk was edited and adapted from Personal Power

by Keith J. Thomas, published in 1917.

Some people are like the chaff which is blown hither and thither, according to which way the

wind blows.

All the enduring things stand firm in the face of every shock that assails them.

The storms pass by, and they are just the same as before, beyond those subtle changes which

the eye cannot detect.

Here is a thought which may not have occurred to you.

Material things are weakened by shocks, but mental and spiritual things are weakened by the absence of them.

The rock that is beaten by the sea, year after year, wears away, firm as it may be.

Let a person, however, be continually tested and worried, and if they are mentally powerful, they will

not only throw off their troubles, but emerge from them strengthened and even encouraged.

It was no mere accident that made humankind master of the world, and each one of us master of our fate.

We became master because we are stronger than all things in this world, not physically, but mentally.

By means of electricity we have overcome the elements.

We have gathered force from the waterfalls

and harris them for our own use.

We have sent our mind into space to study the heavenly bodies,

and we have always succeeded,

except in such cases when we have attempted to measure our mind against the supreme

intelligence from which we draw our own power.

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