Hi
there, and welcome to the closing weeks of April! We're glad that you're here with us
to help us to end the month well, and we thank you for taking the
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Far
away in the sunshine are my highest inspirations.
I may not reach them, but I can look up and see the
beauty, believe in them and try to follow where they
lead.
Louisa
May Alcott
We
should be taught not
to wait for inspiration
to start a
thing. Action always
generates inspiration.
Inspiration seldom
generates action.
Frank
Tibolt
Many
of us spend our whole lives running from feeling with
the mistaken belief that you can not bear the pain. But
you have already borne the pain. What you have not
done is feel all you are beyond that pain.
It is
not the style of clothes one wears, neither the kind of automobile
one drives, nor the amount of money one has in the bank, that counts.
These mean nothing. It is simply service that measures success.
We
must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by
mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn,
which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I
know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable
ability of people to elevate their lives by conscious
endeavor. It is something to be able to paint a
particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a
few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve
and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we
look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality
of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every person
is tasked to make his or her life, even in its details,
worthy of the contemplation of their most elevated and
critical hour. If we refused, or rather used up, such
paltry information as we get, the oracles would distinctly
inform us how this might be done.
I
went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to
front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could
not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die,
discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live
what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to
practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I
wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to
live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that
was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive
life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and,
if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and
genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the
world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and
be able to give a true account of it in my next
excursion.
For most people, it appears to me, are in a
strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or
of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it
is the chief end of man here to "glorify God and enjoy
him forever."
Still
we live meanly, like ants; though the fable tells us that we
were long ago changed into humans; like pygmies we fight
with cranes; it is error upon error, and clout upon clout,
and our best virtue has for its occasion a superfluous and
evitable wretchedness. Our life is frittered away by
detail. Honest people have hardly need to count more
than their ten fingers, or in extreme cases they may add
their ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity,
simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as
two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a
million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your
thumb-nail. In the midst of this chopping sea of
civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and
quicksands and thousand-and-one items to be allowed for,
that people have to live, if we would not founder and go to
the bottom and not make our port at all, by dead reckoning,
and they must be great calculators indeed who succeed.
Simplify, simplify. Instead of three meals a day, if
it be necessary eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes,
five; and reduce other things in proportion. . . .
Why
should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We
are determined to be starved before we are hungry.
People say that a stitch in time saves nine, and so they
take a thousand stitches today to save nine tomorrow.
As for work, we haven't any of any consequence. . . .
Let
us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be
thrown off the track by every nutshell and mosquito's wing
that falls on the rails. Let us rise early and fast,
or break fast, gently and without perturbation; let company
come and let company go, let the bells ring and the children
cry—determined to make a day of it. Why should we
knock under and go with the stream? Let us not be
upset and overwhelmed in that terrible rapid and whirlpool
called a dinner, situated in the meridian shallows.
Weather this danger and you are safe, for the rest of the
way is down hill. With unrelaxed nerves, with morning
vigor, sail by it, looking another way, tied to the mast
like Ulysses. If the engine whistles, let it whistle
till it is hoarse for its pains. If the bell rings,
why should we run? We will consider what kind of music
they are like. Let us settle ourselves, and work and
wedge our feet downward through the mud and slush of
opinion, and prejudice, and tradition, and delusion, and
appearance, that alluvion which covers the globe. . . .
Time
is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it;
but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how
shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity
remains. I would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose
bottom is pebbly with stars. I cannot count one.
I know not the first letter of the alphabet. I have
always been regretting that I was not as wise as the day I
was born.
This work is absolutely remarkable, and well worth the
time it takes to watch it.
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I must
have been about 14 then, and I dismissed the incident
with the easy carelessness of youth. But the words
Carl Walter spoke that day came back to me years later,
and ever since have been of inestimable value to me.
Carl
Walter was my piano teacher. During one of my
lessons he asked how much practicing I was doing.
I said three or four hours a day.
"Do
you practice in long stretches, an hour at a time?"
"I
try to."
"Well,
don't!" he exclaimed. "When you grow up,
time won't come in long stretches. Practice in
minutes, whenever you can find them--five or ten before
school, after lunch, between chores. Spread the
practice through the day, and piano-playing will become
a part of your life."
When I
was teaching at Columbia, I wanted to write, but
recitations, theme-reading and committee meetings filled
my days and evenings. For two years I got
practically nothing down on paper, and my excuse was
that I had no time. Then I recalled what Carl
Walter had said.
During
the next week I conducted an experiment. Whenever
I had five unoccupied minutes, I sat down and wrote a
hundred words or so. To my astonishment, at the
end of the week I had a sizable manuscript ready for
revision.
Later
on I wrote novels by the same piecemeal method.
Though my teaching schedule had become heavier than
ever, in every day there were idle moments which could
be caught and put to use. I even took up
piano-playing again, finding that the small intervals of
the day provided sufficient time for both writing and
piano practice.
There
is an important trick in this time-using formula:
you must get into your work quickly. If you have
but five minutes for writing, you can't afford to waste
four chewing your pencil. You must make your
mental preparations beforehand, and concentrate on your
task almost instantly when the time comes.
Fortunately, rapid concentration is easier than most of
us realize.
I
confess I have never learned how to let go easily at the
end of the five or ten minutes. But life can be
counted on to supply interruptions. Carl Walter
has had a tremendous influence on my life. To him
I owe the discovery that even very short periods of time
add up to all the useful hours I need, if I plunge in
without delay.
1941
Living
Life Fully, the e-zine
exists to try to provide for visitors of the world wide web a
place
of growth, peace, inspiration, and encouragement. Our
articles
are presented as thoughts of the authors--by no means do
we
mean to present them as ways that anyone has to live
life. Take
from them what you will, and disagree with
whatever you disagree
with--just know that they'll be here for you
each week.
Courage
begins when we can admit that there is no life
without
some pain, some frustration; that there is no tragic
accident to which we are immune; and that beyond the
normal exercise of prudence we can do nothing about it.
But
courage goes on to see that the triumph of life is not
in pains avoided, but in joys lived completely in the
moment
of their happening. Courage lies in never
taking so much
as a good meal or a day of health and
fair weather for granted.
It lies in learning to
be aware of our moments of happiness as
sharply as our
moments of pain. We need not be afraid to
weep
when we have cause to weep, so long as we can
really
rejoice at every cause for rejoicing.
If
any person alive is discontented with his or her rewards,
they should examine their service. Action;
reaction. "As ye sow, so shall ye
reap." What you put out will determine what you
must get back in return. It's so simple, so basic, so
true--and yet, so misunderstood.
If a
business is not expanding to the quick and exciting tempo of
the times, it must examine its contribution--its
service. If a person is unhappy with his or her
income, that person must examine and reevaluate his or her
service.
Now,
whom do we serve? Each of us serves a portion of
humanity. And humanity, to any given person, is the
people with whom he or she comes in contact. It is
family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, customers, prospects,
employers--all those one has chosen to serve.
Everyone--everyone with whom we have any kind of contact--is
to us humanity. And our rewards will be determined by
the extent to which we serve.
Never
before in the history of the world have human beings been so
interdependent. It is as impossible to live without
serving others as it would be to live if others were not
constantly serving us. And this is good. The
more closely knit this interdependence becomes, the greater
will be human achievement. We need each other, and we
literally cannot live without each other. Every time
we strike a match, drink a glass of water, turn out the
lights, pick up the telephone, drive our car, put on our
clothes, take a bath, mow the lawn or go fishing (try making
your own fishhooks sometime), we're being served by other
human beings. Every time we look at our watch, we are
being served by a great industry, and by the efforts of
thousands of human beings.
We
all seek rewards, and we should understand that rewards come
in two forms: tangible and intangible. That is,
rewards include the money we earn, the home we buy, the car
we drive, the clothes we wear; and they also include our
happiness, our peace of mind, our inner satisfaction, the
people we meet and enjoy.
But
remember this: Whatever you seek in the form of
rewards, you must first earn in the form of service to
others. All attempts to sidestep this law will end in
failure, frustration, and ultimately, demoralization. . . .
To
come up with ways to increase your service, read books on
your specialty; read what others have found to work well for
them. At the same time, think of original and creative
ways to increase your service--ways that are unique with you
and the way you are.
Going
at it strong for a week or a month and then falling back
into old habits is just like working for a week or a month
on a plot of ground and then abandoning it. Before
long, it will be no better than before.
Each
morning, and during the day, ask yourself this
question: "How can I increase my service today,
knowing that my rewards in life must be in exact proportion
to my service?" Do this every day, and you will
have started to form one of life's most valuable habits. . .
.
If
you're worried about your income or your future, you're
concentrating on the wrong end of the scale. Look at
the other end; concern yourself only with increasing your
service--with becoming great where you are--and your income
and your future will take care of themselves. Don't be
like the person sitting in front of that empty fireplace and
asking for heat; you're asking for the impossible.
Pile in the wood first. The heat will come as a
result.
Next
time you're off by yourself in a quiet place, contemplate
your plot of ground, your life, and begin to sow the seeds
that will yield you a rich and abundant life.
Solitude
can become your most
meaningful companion and it can assist
you in
being a more giving person in
your spiritual partnerships.
Rather than regarding your partner's need for time
alone as a
threat, see it as a time of
renewal that you celebrate. Make
every
effort to help each other have that
space. Treat that
space as sacred.
Sir
William Osler, visiting one of London's leading
children's hospitals, noticed that in a convalescent
ward all the children were clustered at one end of the
room dressing their dolls, playing games and playing in
the sandbox--all except one little girl, who sat
forlornly on the edge of her high, narrow bed, hungrily
clutching a cheap doll.
The
great physician looked at the lonely little figure, then
at the ward nurse. "We've tried to get Susan
to play," the nurse whispered, "but the other
children just won't have anything to do with her.
You see, no one comes to see her. Her mother is
dead, and her father has been here just once--he brought
her that doll. The children have a strange
code. Visitors mean so much. If you don't
have any visitors, you are ignored."
Sir
William walked over to the child's bed and asked, in a
voice loud enough for the others to hear, "May I
sit down, please?" The little girl's eyes lit
up. "I can't stay very long for this
visit," Osler went on, "but I have wanted to
see you so badly." For five minutes he sat
talking with her, even inquiring about her doll's health
and solemnly pulling out his stethoscope to listen to
the doll's chest. And as he left, he turned to the
youngster and said in a carrying voice, "You won't
forget our secret, will you? And mind, don't tell
anyone."
At
the door he looked back. His new friend was now
the center of a curious and admiring throng.
If
you can accept the flow
of life and give in to it,
you will be
accepting
what is real. Only when you accept what is real
can you live with it in
peace
and happiness. The alternative
is a struggle
that will never end
because it is a struggle with
the unreal,
with a mirage
of life
instead of life itself.
Yes, life
can be mysterious and confusing--but there's much of life that's
actually rather dependable and reliable. Some principles apply
to life in so many different contexts that they can truly be called
universal--and learning what they are and how to approach them and use
them can teach us some of the most important lessons that we've ever
learned.
My doctorate is in Teaching and Learning. I use it a lot when I
teach at school, but I also do my best to apply what I've learned to
the life I'm living, and to observe how others live their lives.
What makes them happy or unhappy, stressed or peaceful, selfish or
generous, compassionate or arrogant? In this book, I've done my
best to pass on to you what I've learned from people in my life,
writers whose works I've read, and stories that I've heard.
Perhaps these principles can be a positive part of your life, too! Universal Principles of Living Life Fully. Awareness of
these principles can explain a lot and take much of the frustration
out of the lives we lead.
™
