I found this and thought of you.....I just thought you might enjoy it.
Hope your day is good.
Tom



The Daffodil Principle

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 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 reluctantly I
drove there. 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.
"Forget the daffodils, 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 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.

"But first we're going to see the daffodils. It's just a few blocks,"
Carolyn said. "I'll drive. I'm used to this."
"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 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, and 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 a simple one. "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.


That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a
time--often just one baby-step at 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 particular goal thirty-five or forty
years ago and had worked away at it 'one bulb at a time' through all those
years? "

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 your car or home is paid off
Until you get a new car or home
Until your kids leave the house
Until you go back to school
Until you finish school
Until you clean the house
Until you organize the garage
Until you clean off your desk
Until you lose 10 lbs.
Until you gain 10 lbs.
Until you get married
Until you get a divorce
Until you have kids
Until the kids go to school
Until you have grandkids
Until you retire
Until summer
Until spring
Until winter
Until fall.....


Regardless of one's age, there is no better time than right now to be happy.

Happiness is a journey, not a destination.

If you want to brighten someone's day, pass this on to someone special.

I just did!

Vern wrote:
I found this and thought of you.....I just thought you might enjoy it.
Hope your day is good.
Tom

Thanks for the thought, it is truly beautiful and correct.
There are a couple things that young people should learn that would help
them on the path to happiness earlier.
1. You will never be able to afford children, so you may as well have
them now.
2. You will never be able to afford a house, so you may as well jump
into buying one now.

Dude wrote:

Thanks for the thought, it is truly beautiful and correct.
There are a couple things that young people should learn that would help
them on the path to happiness earlier.
1. You will never be able to afford children, so you may as well have
them now.
2. You will never be able to afford a house, so you may as well jump
into buying one now.

And ... 3. You will never finish spending money on #1 or #2.

GOOD ONE!

By the yard
it's hard
But
by the inch
it's a cinch.

Deciding on a direction - well that's the tricky part.

Thanks for the wonderful example of a great idea.

charlie b

Dude wrote in :

*snip*

1. You will never be able to afford children, so you may as well have
them now.

Isn't the whole point not to be able to afford children, but to help your
children get to the point where they can support you?

Puckdropper
--
Wise is the man who attempts to answer his question before asking it.

To email me directly, send a message to puckdropper (at) fastmail.fm