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Today's
Quotation:
You cannot hope to build a better world
without improving
the individuals.
To that end each of us
must work for
his or her own improvement,
and at the same time
share a general responsibility for all humanity,
our
particular
duty being to aid those to whom we think we
can be most useful.
Marie Curie
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Today's
Meditation:
I
have to improve myself. I don't say that because I
think I'm flawed or unworthy, but because that's what life's
all about. Life is about growth and development, not
stagnation. It's about being more next year than I am
this year because I've been open to learning from the many
lessons that come my way each day.
This
growth is not just for my benefit. In fact, it's less
for my benefit than it is for the benefit of those whom I
touch with my life every day. I'm a good teacher now,
but have you ever had one of those teachers who's been doing
everything exactly the same way for the last twenty
years? These teachers don't learn new methods or
materials--they've found a comfort level that they like, and
they've stayed there, stagnating just like water that stands
in one place for too long. Water is meant to flow and
to mix constantly with new water, not to stand on its own
without new influence. But these teachers do just
that, and what do we learn from them? In my
experience, not much.
Of
course, we're obligated to improve ourselves only if we want
to make this world a better place. If we don't care
about that, then we can spend our lives being entertained
passively, learning nothing new at all. But then we're
not fulfilling our responsibility of contributing to the
world.
Read the book or watch
the movie Tuesdays with Morrie when you get the
chance. Morrie knew that he was dying, but he also
knew that he still had the chance to teach other people, to
touch their lives in a positive way. And the people
who knew him came away richer, and we just know that the
people in their lives in turn were enriched by their
new growth. We can change the world, one small act at
a time.
I
think the only thing I would change about Marie Curie's
passage above would be to say that that we have an
"opportunity" to help, rather than a duty, because
as we enrich others, we also enrich ourselves and our own
lives. It's all in how we look at it.
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Questions to ponder:
1. What can you do today to make the
world a better place,
even if it's on the smallest level possible?
2. How can you improve yourself
today? Tomorrow? This year?
3. How many people are affected by
your actions each day, on any level? Is the effect that you have on them positive and helpful? |
