| The Every Day of Life |
Chapter 13 |
Page 7 |
It is not enough to love; the love must find expression. We must let our friends know that we care for them. We must do it, too, before it is too late. Some people wait till the need is past, and then come up with their laggard sympathy. When the neighbor is well again, they call to say how sorry they are lie has been sick. Would not a kindly inquiry at the door, or a few flowers sent to his/her room, when he/she was ill, have been a fitter and more adequate expression of brotherly/sisterly interest? When a man or a woman without their help has gotten through their long battle with business or other difficulties or embarrassments, and is well on their feet again, friends come with their congratulations.
Would it not have been better if they had proved their care for him/her in some way when they needed strong practical sympathy? The time to show our friendship is when our friend is under the shadow of enmity, when evil tongues misrepresent them, and not when they have gotten vindication and stands honored even by strangers.
This, even in any other social association and especially in business, needs to be specifically applied, to ensure long, trusted, and valued relationships; otherwise courts and legal counsel become the only long-term winners.
There are those, too, who wait till death has come before they begin to speak their words of appreciation and commendation. There are many that say their first truly generous words of others beside their coffins. They bring their flowers then, although they never gave a flower when their friends were living. Many a person goes down in defeat, under life’s burdens, un-helped, un-cheered, and then, when the eyes are closed and the hands folded, there comes, too late, love enough to have turned the tide of battle and given victory, had it come a little earlier.
“Delayed till she had ceased to know,
Delayed till in its vest of snow
Her loving bosom lay.
An hour behind the fleeting breathe,
Later by just an hour than death,–
Oh, lagging yesterday!
Could she have guessed that it would be;
Could but a crier of the glee
Have climbed the distant hill:
Had not the bliss so slow a pace–
Who knows but this surrendered face
Were undefeated still?”
Life is hard for many people, and we have no right to withhold any look or word or touch or act of love, which will lighten the load or cheer the heart of any fellow-struggler. The best use we can make of our life is to live so that we shall be a benediction to every one we meet.
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