Review: Keep Going: The Art of Perseverance by Joseph M. Marshall III

5 stars for Keep Going: The Art of Perseverance by Joseph M. Marshall III.

It is my good fortune to cross paths with this book on Monday when I made a special weekday trip to the library. Often, I find that the books I read make their way to me in the most unexpected way, as is the case for this one. I noted this book upon entering the library as it was placed on a conspicuous spot with two others on the display table. But I barely gave it a glance, and proceeded pronto to look for the books on my reading list. It was only after an hour of book searching and coming up with only one book of my choice that I walked back to the display table again. Somehow, I was not surprised that the same three books were still there. But it didn't take me long to decide. I borrowed two of the books. Keep Going is one of them. I am curious about the Lakota way.

Keep Going is a collection of traditional stories. It is a story within stories, with one story leading to another and another and yet more others. And all equally packed with ancient wisdom. There is knowledge to be gained, comfort to be drawn and strength to be gained from the wise words passed down by the old Lakota grandfather.

The moment I start reading, all I want to do is to keep a list of all the simple and yet powerfully worded passages. But to do so is to quote the book in almost its entirety. And so, I list down only the ones which I find most applicable to me in this season of my life.

I will greatly encourage everyone to read this book. The valuable lessons in each of the stories are suitable for people of all cultures, across time and space.


Publisher: Sterling; First Printing edition
Publication date: 15 Oct 2006

*** Favourite Quote 1 ***

Life is not easy. But that is the way it is and we cannot change it. The only thing we can do is try to understand it.

*** Favourite Quote 2 ***

Without falling, how would you know when to stand?
Without hunger, how would you learn to appreciate abundance?
Without bad, how would you measure good?
Without the finality of death, how would we appreciate life?

*** Favourite Quote 3 ***

Life is life - it is what it is. It offers no certainties, except that it will go on with or without you. The sun will rise and set every day. So do the seasons follow their unerring cycle, waiting for no one or nothing. The seasons turn into years and the years into ages. Neither waiting nor caring if you join them, but never denying your choice to do so. They will go, and so must you because your journey is waiting. And in your journey you will learn reality and balance.

*** Favourite Quote 4 ***

It is only natural for you to think and to wish, and sometimes even to pray, that the bad things do not happen in your life.

You must learn that the answers to those wishes and prayers have already been given to you before you wished and prayed.

*** Favourite Quote 5 ***

It is certain we will not know when or how the difficult and bad times will come, but if we accept that they will come, then they are easier to face when they do.

*** Favourite Quote 6 ***

Weaknesses and strengths are necessary for balance. No one or nothing is only weak or only strong. But some of us overlook our weaknesses, and even deny that we have them. That can be dangerous, because denying there is a weakness is in itself a weakness. Likewise, accepting that we have weaknesses becomes a strength. And by the same token, overestimating strength is a weakness. You should not be blinded by your strengths. The feeling of strength is not the same as having strength. Neither should you ignore your weaknesses. Know them well.

When all is said and done, accept who you are in the moment you are living. In the end, wisdom is born of weaknesses as well as strengths.

*** Favourite Quote 7 ***

Within you is the will to win, as well as the willingness to lose...

*** Favourite Quote 8 ***

As we make our journey, many of us succumb to measuring ourselves and others, by how much worldly goods we have acquired, or can acquire. The false lesson is that he or she who has the most is the best.

It is true that wealth buys power and influence, but it does not buy morality, or kindness, or compassion.

*** Favourite Quote 9 ***

Not to face life is not to gain experience, and not to gain experience limits knowledge. Without knowledge we cannot achieve wisdom.

To have it all we must face life, no matter what.

*** Favourite Quote 10 ***

Life gives and life takes. Life takes our time, and every day is one day closer to the end of our journey on this Earth.

Yet life does gives us much more than the obvious.

If we can learn to look back on the difficulties we have known, whether old or new, then we have moved past them, at least in time. That we are looking back at a tough experience from the perspective of the present moment means we have survived it. The experience may have taken a toll, as difficulties do, but whatever our losses may have been, we have survived.

*** Favourite Quote 11 ***

There are things other than death that can take away our will to go on. Like despair, because nothing can cripple us more than the loss of hope. Weariness may, and does attack our body and mind. But despair takes aim at the soul.

*** Favourite Quote 12 ***

Hope is one of the sparks by which life sustains itself. The ability to hope is one of life's greatest gifts. The moment we hope that all will end well, that we can accomplish what we set out to do, we have likely insured that we will gain the outcome we hope for. At the very least we have increased the odds in our favour.

There are no guarantees that hope will bring the desired outcome. But if we do not or cannot hope we have empowered the cause of our difficulty.

*** Favourite Quote 13 ***

If our journey has not known struggle and we have experienced little or no obstacles, then whatever we have gained may not be seem worthwhile to us, be it riches, or status, or title, or anything else. If we have not known struggle, then neither have we learned the value of hope.

*** Favourite Quote 14 ***

Possibilities were the children of hope.

.. keeping hope alive is to know how to keep going.

*** Favourite Quote 15 ***

Death is often the consequence of choices we make.

~ Keep Going
Joseph M. Marshall III

@}--->>--->>-----

Grandfather says this: “In life there is sadness as well as joy, losing as well as winning, falling as well as standing, hunger as well as plenty, bad as well as good. I do not say this to make you despair, but to teach you…that life is a journey sometimes walked in light and sometimes in shadow.”

Grandfather says this: “Keep going.”

When a young man’s father dies, he turns to his sagacious grandfather for comfort. Together they sit underneath the family’s cottonwood tree, and the grandfather shares his perspective on life, the perseverance it requires, and the pleasure and pain of the journey. Filled with dialogue, stories, and recollections, each section focuses on a portion of the prose poem “Keep Going” and provides commentary on the text.

*Blurb from Goodreads*

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