After finishing his great literary work on the French Revolution, Thomas Carlyle gave his manuscript to John Stuart Mill to read. By mistake, Mill’s maid used the manuscript to start a fire. When Carlyle learned of this, he felt utterly hopeless. Years of hard work up in smoke! He thought he could never rewrite it. Then one day Carlyle saw a mason building a wall, carefully laying one brick at a time. Carlyle took new courage in knowing he could rewrite his manuscript—one page at a time.1
Over time—one step at a time—people can heal from life’s inevitable trials and tribulations. Abraham Lincoln said it this way: “The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.”2 Acknowledging this fact, however, doesn’t always diminish our current suffering. Even “one day at a time” may seem too difficult when we are faced with tragedy. Often, in order to take the first step after a loss, we need someone to hold our hand, to encourage, comfort, and travel with us on our upward climb. Whether we have experienced the tragedy or someone close to us has, we need to remember that the healing process is a different journey for each person. It follows no set time frame or pattern. This requires that we exercise great patience with others and with ourselves.
When someone close to us has suffered a loss—whether a death, a divorce, the loss of a job, or the loss of a dream—we should take the time to explore what would help him or her most. More often than not, it won’t be something that costs money but rather a gift of time, a gift of self.
Each of us will experience sorrow as we walk the pathway of life. So, in a very real way, we’re all in this together. Heartache is our common lot. But so is joy. As we heal and help others to heal, joy will fill our hearts, one step at a time.
Program #3896
1. See John Randolph Ayre, Illustrations to Inspire (1968), 12.
2. “Lincoln Quotes,” http://americanodyssey.net/lincolnquotes.html.