The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1915-07-24
LEISURE HOUR REFLECTIONS
FROM A QUIET CORNER.
By DENNIS S. THOMPSON


Opportunity is a plant which is in
digenous to all soils, but sometimes
it is a scrubby little growth with
scentless flowers. Many a time we,
who have in mind some splendid
shrub whose blossoms fill the air with
fragrance, trample our opportunity un-
der foot and never know it.
But your ability is the measure of
your responsibility, to whom much is
given much will be required, but aft
er all, doing what one can is all that
is to be expected. In passing a home
recently where the father was water
ing the lawn, l was greatly amused at
the little boy who was helping papa as
his childish fancy prompted. He
would bring his toy watering pot to
papa and he, reducing the force of
the stream, would fill it from the
hose.
AS | watched the father watering
the lawn with the hose, and the child
with the little watering pot, | was
greatly impressed with the impor-
tance of taking account of the little
things of life. 1t was a matter of lit
tie consequence to the grass andflow-
RS whether the water which they
needed was given through the hose
or the small watering pot. On the
other hand, it matters little to the
world whether you are an individual
OF one or ten talents, so you give it
the best you have. The man of one
talent giving his best, is far better
than the man of ten talents giving his
worst.
1t Is not how much you give to the
world, but what you give to it. There
are always great many more little
things to be done than big ones, and
we must not lose sight of the fact
that the things done for ourselves will
soon be forgotten, but the things done
for the worlds uplift are immortal.
The best way to secure a position
superior to that which you now occu- |
py is to outgrow your present posi-.
tion. If the certainty that you are
100 big for your place causes you to
work in half hearted, Indifferent
manner, the probability is that your
employer is fast coming to the con-
clusion that you will never grow
enough to fill your present position
satisfactorily, The only way to out
grow your job is to do more work. |
and better work, than it calls for.
Cut yourself loose as far as you can |
from your past mistakes; it is not
possible of course to do this alto
gether but at least you can refuse
to keep them continually before YOU
as some of the old time aspirants for |
always kept a human skull
in view. Undoubtedly all mistakes
have a lesson to teach, but if we mas
ter the lesson once the time spent in
worrying over them is worse than
wasted,
Once in so often the piano tuner
makes his appearance in music loving
households and overhauls the piano.
The wires are stretched, the harmon
les are not what they should be; the
keys give out discord rather than
sweetness. After the piano tuners
visit, the scale runs true from key to
key, and music again becomes one of
the possibilities.
1t is a pity that we do not always
realize it when we ourselves are out
Of tune. 1t does not matter whether
the reason is selfishness OF WEAKNESS,
the fact remains that every chord
struck produces discordant jangle.
Sometimes what we need is a va
cation to put us in tune, and some
times we need to take ourselves in
hand and deliberately eliminate what
ever is oceasioning the discord. But
in either case, no time is to be lost.
The happiness of home life, the sue
cess OF our work, the love of our
friends are all imperiled while we are
out of tune.
There are so many times that one
hears the remark that Mr., Jones or
Miss Sarah is too busy to do this
thing or something else. But it hap
pens that it is the busy men and wom-
en- who are doing the real work OF
the world
In the home, in the church and
schoolroom, in every branch of socie-
ty in every branch OF scientific re-
search and endeavor, it is the busy