Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, “Mother, you must come see the daffodils before they are over.” I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from Laguna to Lake Arrowhead.

“I will come next Tuesday, ” I promised, a little reluctantly, on her third call.

Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and so I drove there. When I finally walked into Carolyn’s house and hugged and greeted my grandchildren, I said, “Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in the clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see bad enough to drive another inch!”

My daughter smiled calmly and said, “We drive in this all the time, Mother.”

“Well, you won’t get me back on the road until it clears, and then I’m heading for home!” I assured her.

“I was hoping you’d take me over to the garage to pick up my car.”

“How far will we have to drive?”

“Just a few blocks,” Carolyn said. “I’ll drive. I’m used to this.”

After several minutes, I had to ask, “Where are we going? This isn’t the way to the garage!”

“We’re going to my garage the long way,” Carolyn smiled, “by way of the daffodils.”

“Carolyn,” I said sternly, “please turn around.”

“It’s all right, Mother, I promise. You will never forgive yourself if you miss this experience.”

After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a small gravel road and I saw a small church. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand-lettered sign that said, “Daffodil Garden.”

We got out of the car and each took a child’s hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, we turned a corner of the path, and I looked up and gasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though someone had taken a great vat of gold and poured it down over the mountain peak and slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns-great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, saffron, and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted as a group so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue. There were five acres of flowers.

“But who has done this?” I asked Carolyn.

“It’s just one woman,” Carolyn answered. “She lives on the property. That’s her home.”

Carolyn pointed to a well kept A-frame house that looked small and modest in the midst of all that glory. We walked up to the house. On the patio, we saw a poster. “Answers to the Questions I Know You Are Asking” was the headline.

The first answer was a simple one.”50,000 bulbs,” it read. The second answer was, “One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and very little brain.” The third answer was, “Began in 1958.”

There it was, The Daffodil Principle. For me, that moment was a life-changing experience. I thought of this woman whom I had never met, who, more than forty years before, had begun ~ one bulb at a time ~ to bring her vision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountain top. Still, just planting one bulb at a time, year after year, had changed the world. This unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. She had created something of ineffable (indescribable) magnificence, beauty, and inspiration.

The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration. That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time ~ often just one baby-step at a time ~ and learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation of time. When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world.

“It makes me sad in a way,” I admitted to Carolyn. “What might I have accomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five or forty years ago and had worked away at it ‘one bulb at a time’ through all those years. Just think what I might have been able to achieve!”

My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way. “Start tomorrow,” she said.

The Real Garden: http://www.geocities.com/thedaffodilgarden/facts.htm

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A woman came out of her house and saw three old men with long white beards sitting in her front yard. She did not recognize them. She said, “I don’t think I know you, but you must be hungry. Please come in and have something to eat.”

“Is the man of the house home?” they asked. “No”, she said. “He’s out.”

“Then we cannot come in”, they replied.

In the evening when her husband came home, she told him what had happened. “Go tell them I am home and invite them in,” he said.

The woman went out and invited the men in. “We do not go into a house together,” they replied. “Why is that?” she wanted to know. One of the old men explained: “His name is Wealth,” he said pointing to one of his friends, and said pointing to another one, “He is Success, and I am Love.” Then he added, “Now go in and discuss with your husband which one of us you want in your home.”

The woman went in and told her husband what was said. Her husband was overjoyed. “How nice!” he said. “Since that is the case, let us invite Wealth. Let him come and fill our home with wealth!”

His wife disagreed. “My dear, why don’t we invite Success?” Their daughter-in-law was listening from the other corner of the house. She jumped in with her own suggestion: “Would it not be better to invite Love? Our home will then be filled with love!”

“Let us heed our daughter-in-law’s advice,” said the husband to his wife. “Go out and invite Love to be our guest.”

The woman went out and asked the three old men, “Which one of you is Love? Please come in and be our guest.” Love got up and started walking toward the house. The other two also got up and followed him.

Surprised, the lady asked Wealth and Success: “I only invited Love, why are you coming in?” The old men replied together: “If you had invited Wealth or Success, the other two of us would’ve stayed out, but since you invited Love, wherever He goes, we go with him. Wherever there is Love, there is also Wealth and Success!”
(N.O.)

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A boy was born to a couple after eleven years of marriage. They were a loving couple and the boy was the apple of their eyes. One morning, when the boy was around two years old, the husband saw a medicine bottle open. He was late for work so he asked the wife to cap the bottle and put it in the cupboard. The mother, preoccupied in the kitchen, totally forgot the matter. The boy saw the bottle and playfully went to it and, fascinated with its color, drank it all. It happened to be a poisonous medicine meant for adults in small dosages.

When the child collapsed, the mother hurried him to the hospital, where he died. The mother was stunned; she was terrified. How would she face her husband? When the distraught father came to the hospital and saw the dead child, he looked at his wife and uttered just four words.

What do you think those four words were?

The husband just said, “I Love You Darling”.

The husband’s totally unexpected reaction is proactive behavior. The child is dead. He can never be brought back to life. There is no point in finding fault with the mother. Besides, if only he would have taken time to put the bottle away, this would not have happened. No point in attaching blame. She had also lost her only child. What she needed at that moment was consolation and sympathy from the husband. That is what he gave her.

Sometimes we spend time asking who is responsible or who’s to blame, whether in a relationship, in a job or with the people we know and miss out on the warmth in human relationships we could receive by giving each other support. After all, shouldn’t forgiving someone we love be the easiest thing in the world to do? Treasure what you have. Don’t multiply pain, anguish and suffering by holding onto forgiveness.

If everyone could look at life with this kind of perspective, there would be fewer problems in the world.

Let go of all your envies, jealousies, unwillingness to forgive, selfishness, and fears and you will find things are actually not as difficult as you think.

unknown

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Once upon a time, there was a poor farmer in China who used an old horse to plow his field. One afternoon, the horse dropped dead, and everyone in the village said, “Oh, what a horrible thing to happen.” The farmer said simply, “We’ll see.” He was so at peace and so calm, that everyone in the village got together and, admiring his attitude, bought him a new horse as a gift.

Everyone’s reaction now was, “What a lucky man.” And the farmer said, “We’ll see.”

A couple days later, the new horse jumped a fence and ran away. Everyone in the village shook their heads and said, “What a poor fellow!” The farmer smiled and said, “We’ll see.”

Eventually, the horse found his way home, and everyone again said, “What a fortunate man.”
The farmer said, “We’ll see.”

Later in the year, the farmer’s young boy went out riding on the horse and fell and broke his leg. Everyone in the village said, “What a shame for the poor boy.” The farmer said, “We’ll see.”

Two days later, the army came into the village to draft new recruits. When they saw that the farmer’s son had a broken leg, they decided not to recruit him. Everyone said, “What a fortunate young man.” The farmer smiled again – and said, “We’ll see.”

We are not in control of the world. Often what looks like a setback or a difficulty is actually a helping hand from the Divine. And often, only with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight can we see that everything happened to help us along the path for the mission determining why we are here in this world. So the next time, something supposedly bad happens to you, say, “This, also, is for good,” and expect that one day you will understand why.

(Author Unknown)

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To live a meaningful life – day by day, minute by minute – may seem daunting. How can one possibly focus amidst all the distractions, problems, and emotions? Even when you are satisfied with your past accomplishments, how can you continue to grow? How can you break out of old patterns and begin to look at life anew?

By isolating your problems and addressing them one at a time. As the sages say, “When you grasp for everything, you end up grasping nothing”. Since each day is a lifetime, you must focus on the day before you, not on yesterday or tomorrow, and utilize its opportunities to the fullest. Make each day’s “routine” to start by concentrating on the purpose of your life. It may be tempting to change your life all at once, but slow, steady progress is always more effective than a “crash course.” Remember, even the longest journey can only be completed one step at a time.

Many of us have learned to view each day as an “inconsequential sidestep” that is disconnected from any larger journey. But the secret to any journey is to fix your eyes on the destination and to keep traveling steadily towards it. Veering off the path, even for a short time, is at best a loss of time and at worst a source of confusion which makes it even more difficult to get back on track.

This is Rex Barker C.S. (Completing Steps) remembering that in the journey of life, your body is the vehicle, but your soul is the compass! By following its voice you remain focused on your destination…and each step… day by day…brings you closer…How you live today determines how you will live tomorrow…the very next thing you do…no matter how small…will determine the rest of your day…and ultimately the rest of your life.

Rex Barker

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“If I am not for myself, who is for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”
- Ethics of the Fathers

We all reach a point in our lives when we realize that if we don’t take responsibility for ourselves, no one will. We also learn to be responsible to our families and friends, and to those in society who are less fortunate. How far should these responsibilities go and how should we prioritize them? Why do we feel the need to be responsible in the first place?

The answers lie in the fact that we were created for a divine reason – to actively pursue a virtuous life and perfect this imperfect world. Responsibility is a basic human need, just like food or oxygen; we cannot fulfill or justify our existence without it.

Responsibility is not something that we should accept reluctantly out of guilt or duty; it is a necessary and healthy component in our lives.

Our first responsibility is to ourselves, for we can hardly hope to civilize the world at large if our own life is out of sync. We are all responsible for our own conduct and cannot blame anyone else for our decisions or actions. We cannot blame our teachers or our parents, our employers or our leaders. Nor can we blame God for making life so difficult…He wouldn’t have placed it in our path without also providing us with the abilities to overcome any obstacle. “If He brings you to it…He’ll get you through it!”

This independence is the greatest manifestation of human dignity. You, and you alone, are responsible for what you make out of your life. Of course, certain people will always need to be cared for – children, obviously, and adults who are unhealthy or incapacitated. We must also recognize that every single person, from a special needs child to a handicapped adult, has deep inner resources that must be cultivated to the fullest. So we are responsible for the welfare of others and for society as a whole.

This is Rex Barker C.S. (Choosing to Serve) reminded that we have all been given a choice – to see life as it truly is, with each human being connected to the next, all linked in one large cosmic destiny, or to be consumed with self-interest. It is not the result that counts; it is our effort, and the sincerity behind the effort, that fulfills our innate need to be responsible. And ultimately… every effort does bear fruit.  Rex Barker

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