Words of Wisdom

Today, at the Senior Citizens’ Meeting, where I have often been a guest over the past many months, I will say my very first formal goodbye. I still have four weeks left in India, but I only have one week left in Chacko Homes; and that means that this particular Senior Citizens’ Meeting is the last one I will be able to attend.

I have a lot to say to these people who have loved me so much and so well this year. But I don’t really know how to say it. And, because I fear that my own words will fail me, I’ve chosen to fill my 10-minute goodbye slot with words written by others. These words have hung on my wall all year, and, as I contemplate the need to take them down very soon, I want to make sure they are passed on…

·The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.

·Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, ,or we find it not.

·Everything you’re sure is right can be wrong in another place.

·There are no problems. There are challenges, and there are opportunities.

·It is the highest calling any of us have in life: making the world a little brighter because of the way we paint our days and hours and months and years.

·People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.

·If you have one eye on yesterday and one eye on tomorrow, you’ll look at today cross-eyed.

·If the world were to end tomorrow, would you be happy with how you spent today?

I can say confidently that, yes, I would.