Dec1

pathway.

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the kinder discovered a pathway on a hill

covered in beautiful, kind, and encouraging stones

created by the older children

left behind for them to find

“what sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity.

these are but trifles, to be sure;

but scattered along life’s pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.”

-joseph addision

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74 responses »

  9. I’ve been unable to find evidence that the quotation is really from Addison. What you quoted appeared anonymously in a bunch of magazines in the 1800s, sometimes in this longer version:

    “What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. They are but trifles, to be sure; but, scattered along life’s pathway, the good they do is inconceivable. A smile accompanied by a kind word has been known to reclaim a poor outcast, and change the whole career of human life. Of all life’s blessings, none are cheaper or more easily dispensed than smiles. Let us not, then, be too chary of them, but scatter them freely as we go; for life is too short to be frowned away.”

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  11. What a wonderful gift for both the kinders and the older children. The older children received the gift of knowing that they could encourage others. The kinders received the gift of finding encouragement that they didn’t even know they needed. What a lovely story for us and a lovely memory for them.

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  22. Delightful! I’m jealous. During covid, word was that people around here were painting stones like that and leaving them for others to find. I never came across one. (Rocks that size are used as mulch here. Strips of them, several feet wide, bordering most driveways and sidewalks. That means less lawn, and less water used.)

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  26. Lovely! And the Addison quote–so sweet. It reminds me of that line from _David Copperfield_:

    “God help me, I might have been improved for my whole life, I might have been made another creature perhaps, for life, by a kind word at that season. A word of encouragement and explanation, of pity for my childish ignorance, of welcome home, of reassurance to me that it was home, might have made me dutiful to him in my heart henceforth, instead of in my hypocritical outside, and might have made me respect instead of hate him.”

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