Daffodil Principle!!

I have taken this from gr8gr88 it inspired me and thought it might inspire others:
Several times my daughter had telephoned to say, "Mother, you must come seethe 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, " Ipromised, reluctantly, on her third call.Next Tuesday dawned cold and rainy. Still, I had promised, and so I drovehere. When I finally walked into Carolyn's house and hugged and greeted my grandchildren, I said, "Forget the daffodils, Carolyn! The road is invisible in the clouds and fog, and there is nothing in the world except you and these children that I want to see bad enough to drive another inch!" Mydaughter 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'mheading for home!" I assured her."I was hoping you'd take me over to the garage to pick up my car." "How farwill we have to drive?" "Just a few blocks," Carolyn said. "I'll drive. I'mused to this." After several minutes, I had to ask, "Where are we going?This isn't the way to the garage!""We're going to my garage the long way," Carolyn smiled, "by way of thedaffodils." "Carolyn," I said sternly, "please turn around." "It's all right, Mother, I promise. You will never forgive yourself if you miss thisexperience."After about twenty minutes, we turned onto a gravel road and I saw a smallchurch. On the far side of the church, I saw a hand-lettered sign thatread,"Daffodil Garden."

We got out of the car and each took a child's hand, and I followed Carolyn down the path. Then, we turned a corner of the path, and I looked up andgasped. Before me lay the most glorious sight. It looked as though someone had taken a shimmering vat of gold and poured it down over the mountainpeakand slopes.The flowers were planted in majestic, swirling patterns-great ribbons and swaths of deep orange, white, lemon yellow, salmon pink, saffron, and butteryellow. Each different-colored variety was planted as a group so that itswirled and flowed like its own river with its own unique hue.There were five acres of flowers. "But who did this?" I asked Carolyn."It's just one woman," Carolyn answered. "She lives on the property. That's herhome." Carolyn pointed to a well kept A-frame house that looked small andmodest in the midst of all that glory. We walked up to the house. On thepatio, 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 secondanswerwas, "One at a time, by one woman. Two hands, two feet, and very little brain." The third answer was, "Began in 1958."There it was, The Daffodil Principle. For me, that moment was alife-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 hervision of beauty and joy to an obscure mountain top. Still, just plantingone bulb at a time, year after year, had changed the world. This unknownwoman had forever changed the world in which she lived. She had createdsomething of magnificence, beauty, and inspiration.The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principlesof celebration. That is, learning to move toward our goals and desires onestep at a time - often just one baby-step at a time - and learning to lovethe doing, learning to use the accumulation of time. When we multiply tinypieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find wecan accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world."It makes me sad in a way," I admitted to Carolyn. "What might I haveaccomplished if I had thought of a wonderful goal thirty-five or fortyyearsago and had worked away at it 'one bulb at a time' through all those years.Just think what I might have been able to achieve!"My daughter summed up the message of the day in her usual direct way."Starttomorrow," she said.It's so pointless to think of the lost hours of yesterdays. The way to makelearning a lesson of celebration instead of a cause for regret is to onlyask, "How can I put this to use today?""Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, but instantlyset about remedying them-- every day begin the task anew."St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622)French bishop & writer