The eagerness and freshness of youth.

"Oh, the eagerness and freshness of youth!
How the boy enjoys his food, his sleep, his sports, his companions, his truant days!
His life is an adventure, he is widening his outlook, he is extending his dominion,
he is conquering his kingdom. How cheap are his pleasures, how ready his enthusiasms!
In boyhood I have had more delight on a haymow with two companions and a big dog-- delight that came near intoxication-- than I have ever had in all the subsequent holidays of my life; for realities in after-life are seldom so impressive as imaginations in early life.

 In childhood we turn our thoughts to the country, as to the region of pleasure; we recur to it in old age as a port of rest, and perhaps with that secondary and adventitious gladness which every man feels on reviewing those places, or recollecting those occurrences, that contributed to his youthful enjoyments, and bring him back to the prime of life, when the world was gay and with the blossom of novelty, when mirth wantoned at his side, and hope sparkled before him."

I never tire of the "port of rest" that childhood memories bring. This piece is a combination of Henry W. Beecher and Samuel Johnson. The phrase, "when the world was gay with the blossom of novelty," captures for me much of what I long for and miss from childhood. The nearest I come to this is when traveling to distant destinations where the culture is different and the sights are new and I can drink of the "blossom of novelty." 

Photo by Rarindra Prakarsa. 

Secrets of the successful

Possibilities in Spare Moments

  "One hour a day withdrawn from frivolous pursuits and profitably employed would enable any man of ordinary capacity to master a complete science.

One hour a day would in ten years make an ignorant man a well-informed man.

It would earn enough to pay for two daily and two weekly papers, or eighteen large volumes a year. An hour a day might make all the difference between bare existence and useful, happy living. An hour a day might make – nay, has made – an unknown man a famous one, a useless man a benefactor to his race. Consider, then, the mighty possibilities of two – four – yes, six hours a day that are, on the average, thrown away by young men and women in the restless desire for fun and diversion.

   On the floor of the gold-working room, in the United States Mint at Philadelphia, there is a wooden lattice-work which is taken up when the floor is swept, and the fine particles of gold-dust, thousands of dollars’ yearly are thus saved. So every successful man has a kind of network to catch “the raspings and parings of existence, those leavings of days and wee bits of hours” which most people sweep into the waste of life. He who hoards and turns to account all odd minutes, half hours, unexpected holidays, gaps “between time,” and chasms of waiting for unpunctual persons, achieves results which astonish those who have not mastered this most valuable secret.”

Orison Swett Marden, painting by Seymour J. Guy, Utilizing a Spare Moment. 

  I ran across this picture in a Berkeley Ca. gallery. (click on it for best viewing) Something about it I just love. The photographer is Emerson Matabele and this woman titled, "The Conjure Woman", from Naudada Nepal had the following caption under it.

   Often beauty is not perceived because it exists in the wilderness or because the right eye never comes. 
Adalbert Stifter. 

Opportunities

  “There may not be one chance in a million that you will ever receive unusual aid; but opportunities are often presented which you can improve to good advantage, if you will only act. 

  The lack of opportunity is ever the excuse of a weak, vacillating mind. Opportunities! Every life is full of them. Every lesson is full of them. Every lesson in school or college is an opportunity. Every examination is a chance in life. Every patient is an opportunity. Every newspaper article is an opportunity. Every client is an opportunity. Every sermon is an opportunity. Every business transaction is an opportunity, -- an opportunity to be polite, -- an opportunity to be manly – an opportunity to be honest, -- an opportunity to make friends. Every proof of confidence in you is a great opportunity. Every responsibility thrust upon your strength and your honor is priceless. Existence is the privilege of effort, and when that privilege is met like a man, opportunities to succeed along the line of your aptitude will come faster than you can use them. If a slave like Fred Douglass, who did not even own his body, can elevate himself into an orator, editor, statesman, what ought the poorest white boy to do, who is rich in opportunities compared with Douglas?” Orison Swett Marden. 

  

The following few posts come from a book by Orison Swett Marden titled, "The Secret of Achievement." I posted a few pieces from it regarding rearing children that I like. Working with men in recovery, I find few that were truly invested in by their parents. There are exceptions, but they are few. Most are diamonds in the rough and ooze with potential but have had little mentoring. 

  "A boy has been likened to a hundred weight of good iron, which, in its ordinary form, may not be worth more than a dollar; but, when carbonized into steel, it is worth twice as much; when made into inch screws, a hundred dollars; if drawn into fine wire, five hundred dollars; if changed into fine needles, a thousand dollars; if into small fishhooks, twenty-five hundred dollars; if into minutest watch-screws, three hundred thousand dollars; if into finest hairsprings, one million, five hundred thousand dollars, or sixty times the value of an equal weight of gold. The higher the development, the more hammering, beating, rolling, pounding, and polishing, the more valuable the iron becomes.” 

  "I would be glad," says a wise man, "to see more parents understand that when they spend money judiciously to improve and adorn the house, and the grounds around it, they are in effect paying their children a premium to stay at home as much as possible, and enjoy it; but when they spend money unnecessarily in fine clothing and jewelry for their children, they are paying them a premium to spend their time away from home --- that is, in those places where they can attract the most attention, and make the most display."
 The Secret of Achievement, Orison Swett Marden

 “A boy who is coddled by his parent’s,” says Charles Nordhoff, “who sits behind the stove in winter when others are playing in the snow, who lies abed late and has his pockets full of candy, who must not go into the water until he has learned to swim, and whose precious life and breath are the objects of his own and his parents’ incessant solicitude, may look with pity upon his neighbor, who runs about barefooted, gets up early to feed the cows, has few clothes and no candy, and must work for his food; but all human experience and all history show that the hardier boy has by far the best chance of becoming a useful man, and making an honorable figure in the world.” Nature curses inaction, whether among the rich or poor. Orison Swett Marden