After a period life seems like a street that has just been washed clean by a thunderstorm. One or two items may have been left out in the rain. There are areas of disconcerting dampness and puddles in unexpected places. But no real damage has been done and much that was sorely in need of improvement is now in a much better state. It may be a cliche to say that today is the first day of the rest of your life, but cliches only ever become cliches because they reflect the truth. Today, it is more true than ever.What's in your surprise package?  It may hardly even have drawn your attention. But if you stop and look around you can see that things are just a little different, in some key area of your existence, in some small, subtle but significant respect. Take another look at what you're not sure is even worth looking at. It could yet present a vision that leaves you transfixed. 
 Intelligence is not the same thing as courage. There may be some times when the only smart thing to do is be brave. But then there may also be times when it is a far brighter idea to slope off into the shadows until you are in a better position to fight back.  You need to pursue any such evasive policy now; I am just pointing out that big bold ideas are not automatically, always, 'brilliant' ones! Be just a little wary of 'brainwaves'.Even the people who run some of the world's greatest educational institutions tend to assume that not all students will be brilliant, talented and capable of making history. Most, they expect, will have an element of the ordinary about them. Yet what about the greatest artists and scientists who ever lived? Were there not some ways in which they, too, were normal? Forget what makes you like everyone else now. Just remember what makes you special. Those qualities are all you need to see you through.
We put two and two together... and make five. Or twenty-two! Or we decide that one of these twos is a 'minus two' and the other is a 'plus' so when combined, they cancel each other out and make 'nothing.' In such weird and wonderful ways, we miss opportunities, even when they are staring us in the face. Or we turn molehills into mountains and perceive daunting problems when we really face only a passing nuisance. A sense of perspective is such a precious thing. Hang on to yours today and all will be well. It is better to acquit a thousand guilty persons than to convict a single innocent one.' This principle is many thousands of years old and to this day, in civilised lands across the world, it is still applied.