Читать книгу Peace a Day at a Time - Karen Casey - Страница 72

Something needs to be done in the course of a day.

—Edith Shannon

Where did we learn to be productive? Perhaps from parents who expected chores to be done. Or maybe from the popular refrain heard in every classroom by every child: “Get busy!” The stories we read as children usually lauded the fruits of being industrious. The message was everywhere. And nothing has changed.

Being productive isn't a failing. In fact, without committing to productivity we'd never have attained any goal we set for ourselves. Our past accomplishments wouldn't have materialized. But a lesson we deserve to learn—and it's never too late—is that we can define “getting something done” as loosely and as imaginatively as we wish. This is surely one of the rewards of old age.

Feeling as though we have made a difference is what we really yearn for. How we make that difference is as varied and optional as our minds can fathom.

Something as simple as smiling at a stranger is getting something done. I can brighten someone's world so easily today.

—from Keepers of the Wisdom