I remembered this story all of a sudden and felt it was worth re-posting.
Source: Nishanth’s Blog
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The way to make learning a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, ‘How can I put this to use today?’
There is no better time than right now to be happy. Happiness is a journey, not a destination.
So work like you don’t need money. Love like you’ve never been hurt, and dance like no one’s watching. :D
A very nice story to help understand what that means…
Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, ‘Mother, you must come to see the daffodils before they are over.’
I wanted to go, but it was a two-hour drive from my house.
‘I will come next Tuesday’, I promised a little reluctantly on her third call. Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. But, as I had promised I left for her home reluctantly. When I finally walked into Carolyn’s house, I was welcomed by the joyful sounds of happy children. I delightedly hugged and greeted my grandchildren.
‘Perhaps we can give the daffodils a go-by, Carolyn? The road is invisible in these clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see badly enough to drive another inch!’
My daughter smiled and said, ‘ It is okay mom. I can drive in this.’
We all went and my daughter was driving. The weather was sure bad. I was concerned. I suggested to Carolyn that we turned back.
My daughter persisted. ‘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 with an arrow that read,! ‘Daffodil Garden.’ We got out of the car, each took a child’s hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, as we turned a corner, 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 over the mountain peak and its surrounding slopes. The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns, great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, creamy white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, saffron and butter yellow. Each different-colored variety was planted in large groups so that it swirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue. There were five acres of flowers.
‘Who did this?’ I asked Carolyn.
‘Just one woman,’ Carolyn answered. ‘She lives on the property. That’s her home.’ Carolyn pointed to a well-kept A-frame house, small and modestly sitting 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- ‘50,000 bulbs,’ it read.
The second answer was, ‘One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and one brain.’
The third answer was, ‘Began in 1958.’
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 mountaintop. Planting one bulb at a time, year after year, this unknown woman had forever changed the world in which she lived. One day at a time, she had created something of extraordinary magnificence, beauty, and inspiration. The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principles of celebration. And she created not for others, but for herself, for the nature, for her surroundings.
That is, learning to move toward implementing our vision and dreams – 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.
‘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.
She was right. It’s so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays. The way to make learning a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to only ask, ‘How can I put this to use today?’
Use the Daffodil Principle.
Stop waiting…..
Until our car or home is paid off
Until we get a new car or home
Until our children are married
Until we go back to school
Until we finish school
Until we move to new residence
Until we get married
Until we get a divorce
Until we have kids
Until the kids go to school
Until we retire
Until summer
Until New year
Until the festival
There is no better time than right now to be happy. Happiness is a journey, not a destination.
So work like you don’t need money. Love like you’ve never been hurt, and dance like no one’s watching…
A Learning a Day 