Monday, September 27, 2010

Difference between Night and Day?

Jeff and I read this somewhere the other day and I loved it! " The rabbi who once asked his pupils, “how can you tell when night has ended and day is about to begin?” The pupils pondered for a while, argued, and finally one of them said, “Could it be when you look off in the distance and see two trees, and you are able to tell that one is a fig tree and one is a palm tree?” The rabbi answered, “No.” The pupils argued a bit longer until another one offered, “Could it be when you look off in the distance and, seeing two animals, are able to distinguish that one is a sheep and one is a dog?” Again the rabbi answered, “No.” Finally, exasperated by the arguing, the students said, “All right then rabbi, tell us, how do you know when night has ended and the day is about to begin?” The rabbi slowly looked each one of them in the eye and said, “It is when you can look on the face of any man or woman and see there a brother or a sister. Because if you cannot do that, no matter what time of day it is, it is still night.”

God does not expect that we will change the world in an instant, or heal all its divisions on our own – only that we be human; that we treat others as neighbors; that we not let our own needs blind us to our capacity to help others.  http://saintalbanchurch.org/carosel/sermon-alan-gates-july-11-2010/

"May God grant us the vision and courage
to tell the difference between night and day;
to recognize our brothers and sisters;
to offer our eyes, even when we are lame;
to offer our legs, even when we are blind.
to be the unexpected but ordinary heroes along the roadside of our own life’s journey."

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."  ~Anne Frank

"I expect to pass through life but once.  If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again."          ~William Penn

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