WISDOM. There was once a man who carried a cracked lantern. Each night he walked through town with it, and because the glass was broken, it cast a crooked light. He grumbled that the streets were dangerous, that people avoided him, that shadows followed him everywhere he went. But the truth was simple… it wasn’t the streets. It wasn’t the people. It wasn’t even the shadows. It was the light he carried. The broken lantern made everything around him look darker, meaner, and more threatening than it really was. A negative attitude works the same way. When your spirit is cracked by bitterness or stress, your light bends. You see problems where there are none, enemies where there are friends, and obstacles where there are open doors. And because you see the world that way, you act that way. Others react in kind, and the cycle continues. The man never realized that the shadows weren’t chasing him.. he was casting them. So it is with us: when we choose gratitude, patience, and faith, our lantern shines clear. The path doesn’t change..but how we walk it does.