THE LITTLE THINGS THAT COUNT

Hokitika Guardian, 31 August 1929, Page 8

THE LITTLE THINGS THAT COUNT

Life for most people is made up of little things. That is why so many folk are restless and discontented, tired of routine, impatient of the trivial, everyday happenings and longing for some great romance or adventure to lessen the dull monotony of their lives, quite unmindful of the fact that the little tasks were set to prepare them for the higher work to come. If we fail in the lesser things how shall we acquit ourselves in the big tasks of life? Have you ever considered the vast opportunities for service afforded us by little things? Taking a bunch of flowers to a friend ill in the hospital, minding the children across the way while their mother goes shopping, reading aloud for an iiour to blind old Mr Timrnis, or asking the lonely spinster next door in to tea—a difference they make to the happiest of those about us. What pleasure is given by a book,.a scarletflowered geranium in a dingy city window box, a sunset, the song of a bird and fragrant, purple-hearted violets in the spring time; what unlimited joy in a kind word, a friendly handclasp, unexpected praise or encouragement. What a tremendous power for good are the little things. One cannot hope to measure the wonderful effect they have on our lives, and yet so often they are relegated to the back kg round of our memory and we dwell only on the disagreeable happenings of the day; how the milk boiled over the lawn-mower would not cut and the, train was late and the ,office boy forgot the -stamps. The petty annoyances loom large in our minds. We give way to frowns and bad temper, losing our sense of proportion entirely.. To live well and happily we must learn to overlook.the small grievances and discomforts by seeking, whereby wo - may help others and by steadily keeping our eyes on the goal ahead that when the big crisis comes -in our lives we may act nobly and courageously through our previous attention to the little things, the little that count.-—ENID SAUNDERS in the Auckland i Star.