The tiny Spark
Nigeria
December 22, 2008
It seem like I’m a Sparrow who lives among Eagles and no matter how hard I try to soar; it’s never high enough. At least when I try, I could do with a little commendation even if it is empty and sarcastic but I get none. All I need are some few words of encouragement to refuel my enthusiasm, build some ego and know I am accepted the way I am. It wears me out when people (especially the ones I love) keep putting me down, ignoring my achievements and exaggerating my mistakes, expecting much from me when they’ve given me little or nothing at all, bombarding and denting me with daunting discouragements and expecting me to come out a polished success, calling me “the nobody” and expecting me to be a “somebody”, expecting me to hold on when they’re pulling me down, to be strong when they’re sapping my strength with their criticism and mockery, beating my emotions and expecting me not to cry. How is that possible? I can’t hide the tears no more; I can’t hold them back any longer. Now I want to cry, I want to let those tears I’ve held back for years out, I want to shout out loud, to scream on top of my lungs, to vent out the volcano of anger sweltering in me, to hit my head against the wall, knock down a ceramic vase, or kick the flower pot in the veranda. When I’m done, I’ll be just me; and not what somebody else expects me to be. I will love myself as the sparrow I am, even if nobody else will. The simple Lovely sparrow.
December 13, 2008
As pain and bliss inevitably follow on wrong and right
beginnings, so unhappiness and blessedness are inseparably bound
up with small tasks and duties. Not that a duty has any power of
itself to bestow happiness or the reverse - this is contained in the
attitude of the mind which is assumed towards the duty - and
everything depends upon the way in which it is approached and
done.
Not only great happiness but great power arises from doing little
things unselfishly, wisely, and perfectly, for life in its totality is
made up of little things. Wisdom inheres in the common details of
everyday existence, and when the parts are made perfect the Whole
will be without blemish.
Everything in the universe is made up of little things, and the
perfection of the great is based upon the perfection of the small. If
any detail of the universe were imperfect the Whole would be
imperfect. If any particle were omitted the aggregate would cease to
be. Without a grain of dust there could be no world, and the world
is perfect because the grain of dust is perfect. Neglect of the small is
confusion of the great. The snowflake is as perfect as the star; the
dew drop is as symmetrical as the planet; the microbe is not less
mathematically proportioned than the man. By laying stone upon
stone, plumbing and fitting each with perfect adjustment, the
temple at last stands forth in all its architectural beauty. The small
precedes the great. The small is not merely the apologetic attendant
of the great, it is its master and informing genius.
Vain men are ambitious to be great, and look about to do some
great thing, ignoring and despising the little tasks which call for
immediate attention, and in the doing of which there is no
vainglory, regarding such "trivialities" as beneath the notice of great
men. The fool lacks knowledge because he lacks humility, and,
inflated with the thought of self-importance, he aims at impossible things
December 13, 2008
