“LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO BE LITTLE”

On the slope of Long's Peak in Colorado lies the ruin of a gigantic tree.

Naturalists tell us that it stood for some 400 years.

It was a seedling when Columbus landed at San Salvador, and half grown when the Pilgrims settled at Plymouth.

During the course of its long life, it was struck by lightning 14 times, and the innumerable avalanches and storms of 4 centuries thundered past it.

It survived them all. In the end, however, an army of beetles attacked the tree and levelled it to the ground.

The insects ate their way through the bark and gradually destroyed the inner strength of the tree by their tiny but incessant attacks.

A forest giant which age had not withered, nor lightning blasted, nor storms subdued, fell at last before beetles so small that a man could crush them between his fore finger and his thumb.

Aren't we all like that battling giant of the forest?

Don't we manage somehow to survive the rare storm and avalanches and lightning blasts of life, only to let our hearts be eaten out by beetles of worry-little beetles that could crushed between a finger and a thumb?

Let's not allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget.

Remember

"LIFE IS TOO SHORT TO BE LITTLE"