Thursday, September 20, 2007

thoughts


"When I go into the garden with a spade, and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and health that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands."

Ralph Waldo Emerson



Do I defraud others when I do too much for them? Do I deny them the pleasure of a job well-done, if I do the job for them? How many times have I denied my children the opportunity to learn and to grow and to accomplish, because I have undertaken a task for them, that they should have done themselves? even if it was done in the spirit of "trying to help". How does one learn the value and concept of self-discipline, if someone else is always taking care of business? Thoughts that make me go...hmmm.

3 comments:

Jami said...

good thoughts... very good thoughts :)

Alice said...

man, i wish more people at my office would defraud me of the pleasure of doing all this work myself ;-)

anita said...

lol