The Pilot’s Desiderata

Discover your far horizons; but embrace the sky softly, quietly, so that others of your kind may follow.

Know your limitations from moment to moment and be humble when the elements are against you.

Accept advice from those before you, seeking out their truths.

Use your temper as a catalyst to keep you advancing; guarding it with vigilance though, lest you be obliged to bite your tongue.

Leave your mistakes behind you, noting their lessons as part of your tuition for learning.

If you quit and you will want to -  begining again will be lonely.

You cannot know the color of the truth unless you wear its cloth; therefore, let honesty itch your mind, gleaming conspicuous in the eyes.

If you become a hostage to fear of the unknown, challenge it with tenacity; keeping in mind, however, that only a fool is fearless.

Remember how lucky you are to see and touch the sky; the blind may only dream.

Be the opportunist; the forever hesitant are losers.

In each of us there is conflict, daydreaming versus reality. May dreaming prod your curiosity, but reality wield the sword.

Expect the unexpected. It will develop an awareness for Murphy’s Law: if something can go wrong - it will.

Your time on this earth is a perpetual flight plan cancelled with your passing; you are wise, then, to spend each day as though it were your last among those of the living.

You are entitled to complain; use maturity if you do.

With your wings you will receive wisdom, courage and joy, but moreover you will have joined the college of a thousand friendships; never forget them.

Fly as the wind from every quarter; climb high, hesitate and tumble. Yet above all, know when it is time to fold your fragile wings. Remember, you are not God-like, but a mere mortal, vulnerable - a pilot, and that is world enough.

– Thomas F. Legg