Where Character Grows Best
Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest;
Home-keeping hearts are happiest,
For those that wander they know not where
Are full of trouble and full of care;
To stay at home is best.
Weary and homesick and distressed,
They wander east, they wander west,
And are baffled and beaten and blown about
By the winds of the wilderness of doubt;
To stay at home is best.
Then stay at home, my heart, and rest;
The bird is safest in its nest;
O’er all that flutter their wings and fly
A hawk is hovering in the sky;
To stay at home is best.
—Henry W. Longfellow.
Home—the place on earth where the faults and failures of humanity are hidden under the sweet mantle of charity.
—Anon.
Too Busy To Be Happy
(Every American should ponder these wise words of a great Chinese Admiral.)
You Americans are too busy to be happy. You do not seem to understand the real meaning of the word happiness. Joy, exhilaration, pleasure, physical comfort are yours in abundance. But quiet, restful contentment and happiness are strangers to you. Happiness implies tranquility. You are always in a rush, as if God could not get along without your immediate aid. Neither are you ever satisfied with what you have or do. In the end you often win too much,—too much of everything but the one essential thing—LIFE!
—Admiral Tsai Ting-Kano.
Alternate Reading: Matthew 15: 21-28.